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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has found federal officials unconstitutionally violated the free speech rights of pro-Palestinian protesters in its effort to deport international students and scholars expressing pro-Palestinian views, including Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil and Tuft’s University’s Rumeysa Ozturk.

“This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with the subordinate officials and, agents of each of them, deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble of the non-citizen plaintiff members of the plaintiff associations,” U.S. District Court Judge William Young wrote in a decision Tuesday.

The decision came as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, which represents hundreds of professors and students across the country.

A bench trial was held in the case in July. In the course of the trial, it was revealed the government looked into more than 5,000 people named on the doxxing website Canary mission in its effort to revoke the visas of student protesters.

Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said Rubio and Noem used the attempted deportation of some pro-Palestinian protesters to create a chilling effect that would discourage others from participating in protests.

“It was never the Secretaries’ immediate intention to deport all pro-Palestinian non-citizens for that obvious First Amendment violation, that could have raised a major outcry,” Young wrote in the order. “Rather, the intent of the Secretaries was more invidious — to target a few for speaking out and then use the full rigor of the Immigration and Nationality Act (in ways it had never been used before) to have them publicly deported with the goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence because their views were unwelcome.”

Young said President Donald Trump’s support of this effort violates his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution,” though he is immune from any consequences for this conduct per the U.S. Supreme Court.  

“The Secretaries have succeeded, apparently well beyond their immediate intentions. One may speculate that they acted under instructions from the White House, but speculation is not evidence and this Court does not so find,” Young wrote.

“What is clear, however, is that the President may not have authorized this operation (or even known about it), but once it was in play the President wholeheartedly supported it, making many individual case specific comments (some quite cruel) that demonstrate he has been fully briefed,” Young said.

While Young wrote that he found clear and convincing evidence of constitutional violations, he does not expect a correction from authorities or public outcry.

“The President in recent months has strikingly unapologetically increased his attack on First Amendment values, balked here and there by District Court orders,” Young said. 

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(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court in New York will hear oral arguments Tuesday in cases involving two graduate students who claim they were unlawfully detained earlier this year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism.

The detention in March of Tufts doctoral candidate Rumeysa Ozturk was captured on a video that depicted a man in a hoodie stopping her on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts. Men and women in masks approached her and she was heard screaming as she was taken into custody.

Her attorneys said Ozturk, a Turkish national, spent six weeks in detention for writing an op-ed in her student newspaper the year before that criticized the university’s rejection of student government resolutions concerning Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They called it “a shocking violation of the First Amendment.”

The federal government is appealing a lower court decision granting Ozturk release on bail while her immigration case is pending. Her attorneys urged a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals to reject it.

“Ms. Öztürk is now free, back living and studying in Massachusetts,” her attorneys said. “Respondents did something they had no power at all to do: unconstitutionally detain her to retaliate against and punish her for her speech in support of Palestinian human rights.”

The government is also challenging Mohsen Mahdawi’s release on bail.

Mahdawi, who was detained in April after completing his naturalization interview, had been outspoken on the Columbia University campus in opposition to the war in Gaza.

In both cases, the government argued that no federal court can hear a habeas challenge until the administrative immigration review process runs its course.

Mahdawi’s attorneys, and Ozturk’s attorneys, argued nothing in federal law allows for indefinitely detaining noncitizens before they can appeal the constitutionality of their detention.

“Any other conclusion would give the executive branch a powerful tool of unchecked censorship — the ability to detain noncitizens as punishment for their political viewpoints, thereby chilling the speech of untold others for as long as the government takes to administer its executive branch immigration procedures,” Mahdawi’s lawyers argued.

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(DALLAS) — A second detainee has died after being shot at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office last week, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, 32, was gravely wounded in Wednesday’s shooting and has now died from his injuries after being removed from life support, LULAC said.

“Miguel was a good man, a loving father, and the provider for our family,” his wife, Stephany Gauffeny, said in a statement released by LULAC.

“His death is a senseless tragedy that has left our family shattered,” she said. “I do not know how to explain to our children that their father is gone.”

The other victim killed in the shooting, Norlan Guzmán-Fuentes, 37, had been pronounced dead shortly after the incident, LULAC said.

The shooting unfolded on Wednesday morning when a sniper opened fire “indiscriminately” at the ICE building and an ICE van, striking three detainees, authorities said.

The suspect, Joshua Jahn — who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the shooting — was allegedly targeting ICE agents, not detainees, officials said, citing notes the suspect left behind.

“It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ICE personnel,” said Nancy E. Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, calling it “tragic irony” that detainees, not agents, were shot.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said he would put all ICE facilities on a higher alert in the wake of the shooting.

ABC News’ Luke Barr and Deena Zaru Pettiford contributed to this report.

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(CHICAGO) — Federal charges have been filed against four individuals involved in the anti-ICE protests in Chicago over the weekend, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.

The four defendants are being charged with assaulting and resisting officers outside the Broadview ICE facility during the multi-day protest on Saturday.

Paul Ivery, one of the individuals charged, allegedly showed his middle finger to federal agents at the protest before saying, “I’ll f—— kill you right now” and jumping on a car, causing damage to the vehicle, and fighting with a Homeland Security agent, according to the court filings.

Hubert Mazur, Ray Collins and Jocelyne Robledo were also detained at the protests after engaging in physical altercations with federal officers, according to the court documents. Collins and Robledo were in possession of semiautomatic pistols at the protest but had lawful permits to carry the firearms, according to court documents.

ICE posted on X about Collins and Robledo’s arrests Monday afternoon, sharing photos of the couple and their firearms, writing “they will be prosecuted and held accountable.”

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said federal officers used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash-bang devices on protesters, journalists and bystanders in Broadview. The Trump administration is attempting to destabilize Chicago, he said.

“This is not about fighting crime or about public safety. This is about sowing fear and intimidation and division among Americans. It was about creating a pretext to send armed military troops into our communities. This is about consolidating power in Donald Trump’s hands,” Pritzker said.

ABC News has reached out to the Trump administration for a comment.

A group of Chicago community groups held another news conference Sunday, lambasting ICE’s activities and increased presence in the city.

Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who represents part of Chicago in Congress, criticized ICE’s efforts to detain immigrants in the city.

“Today we witness the further militarization of ICE tactics in Chicago as they showed up downtown to indiscriminately continue to profile against people just because of what they look like,” Garcia said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson posted on X Sunday afternoon, saying, “This is another brazen provocation from the Trump administration that does nothing to make our city safer.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Police said Monday officials are still trying to determine the cause and manner of death of a teenage girl whose body was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer D4vd earlier this month.

The body was discovered in the trunk of the Tesla on Sept. 8, two days after it had been towed from a Los Angeles street, police sources said.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified the female body as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The teen, from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, was reported missing last year, investigators confirmed to ABC News.

In an update on the investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department said Monday that its Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD) has been “diligently investigating” Rivas Hernandez’s death over the past several weeks.

Police said the teen may have been dead for several weeks before her body was discovered, and that the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has not yet determined the cause or manner of her death.

“As such, it remains unclear whether there is any criminal culpability beyond the concealment of her body,” police said. “RHD is thoroughly examining every aspect of this case to uncover the truth and seek justice for Celeste Rivas Hernandez and her family.”

According to a copy of the death certificate obtained by ABC News, her manner of death is pending investigation and her cause of death remains listed as “deferred.” Based on the date of birth listed, her remains were found a day after her 15th birthday. She was not pregnant, nor had she been in the last year, according to the document.

Sources told ABC News that investigators will be relying on lab tests and toxicology in an attempt to determine how she died, and that this remains a death, as opposed to a homicide, investigation.

No additional information is being released at this time, police said.

“We appreciate the public’s patience and understanding as we continue this investigation,” police said.

Officers responded to an impound lot in Hollywood on Sept. 8 “for a foul odor coming from a vehicle,” Los Angeles police said.

Authorities located a body in the front trunk of the Tesla that was in a state of decomposition, LAPD sources said.

The Tesla had been at the impound lot for two days after being found abandoned on a Hollywood street, investigators said.

The vehicle is registered to 20-year-old David Anthony Burke, known professionally as D4vd, according to a senior LAPD source.

Following the identification of the body, a Los Angeles home where D4vd had been living was searched later that night, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

ABC News has reached out to his representative and lawyer for comment several times, but has not received a response.

D4vd, who first went viral on TikTok, where he has 3.8 million followers, had been on his “Withered” world tour when the body was discovered in his vehicle. The last few shows of the tour, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles, were canceled.

Shows on the European leg of the tour have also been canceled.

Promotion on the deluxe edition of his debut album, which was set to be released on Sept. 19, has also been paused, a source close to the situation told ABC News.

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(GRAND BLANC, Mich.) — All of the victims have been accounted for in the mass shooting and arson at a Michigan chapel after a gunman opened fire while hundreds were worshiping on Sunday morning, officials said on Monday.

Four people were killed and eight others injured, officials said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

The gunman, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, drove his truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Sunday morning, before shooting congregants and setting the building on fire, according to officials.

The gunman was then killed in a shootout with responding police, law enforcement said.

On Sunday, authorities said they feared more victims would be found in the ruble of the house of worship that was allegedly set on fire by the suspected shooter. But on Monday afternoon, Grand Blanc Police Chief William Renye said that while the burned chapel was still being search, no additional victims are expected to be found.

“At this time, everyone has been accounted for. We are still in the process of clearing the church, but everyone has been accounted for,” Renye said.

Reuben Coleman, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Michigan field office, said the attack is being investigated as an “act of targeted violence.”

One victim died at the scene, another later died at the hospital and two more individuals were found dead at the scene due to the fire, officials said. Eight others remain hospitalized, including seven in stable condition and one in critical condition.

The chapel is a “total loss” as investigators work to comb through the rubble, officials said.

A source briefed on the investigation told ABC News that detectives are urgently working to determine the motive behind the shooting.

During Monday’s news conference, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cautioned the public to be patient as investigators seek a motive in the shooting.

“I want to caution everyone that while we are working hard, at this juncture speculation is unhelpful and it could be quite dangerous,” said Whitmer, adding she has ordered flags across the state to be lowered to half-staff in honor of the victims.

“Your grief is our grief,” said Whitmer.

Investigators are working to learn whether the church had been the target of threats in recent months or whether the timing could be connected to the death on Saturday of Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was 101 years old.

Renye said during Sunday’s news conference that the FBI had assigned more than 100 agents to help in the investigation.

Renye said the gunman “ran the vehicle through the front door, exited and started firing shots,” adding that it remains unclear what connection, if any, the suspect had to the church.

Sanford was a veteran of the Iraq War, according to officials. ABC News confirmed with the United States Marine Corps that Sanford served four years in the Marines from June 2004 to June 2008. He ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant, officials said, serving one combat tour to Iraq.

President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting and fire, writing Sunday on social media, “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”

“The Trump Administration will keep the Public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump said.

Trump also wrote that the FBI is leading the investigation efforts. Trump said that while the suspect is dead, there is “still a lot to learn.”

Vice President JD Vance posted his own statement on social media, calling the shooting and fire at an LDS church “awful.” He said the “entire” Trump administration is monitoring the incident.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Chris Looft and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal government shutdown is looming, with the government set to run out of funding at midnight from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the impacts a potential shutdown would have on travel:

Will TSA work in a shutdown?

Transportation Security Administration workers at airport checkpoints will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown.

According to Department of Homeland Security documents, 58,488 employees out of the total TSA workforce of 61,475 will be retained during a shutdown.

Will my flight get canceled? 

No. Commercial flights will continue to operate and airline employees will not be impacted.

How will air traffic controllers be impacted? 

Over 13,000 air traffic controllers will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation’s shutdown plan.

The only controllers who will be furloughed will be those who are not certified or are in training at the ATC academy, and all training would cease. NATCA, the union representing air traffic controllers, previously told ABC News that the shutdown in 2018-2019 “eroded critical layers of safety necessary to support and maintain the [national air space]. Many of the safety activities that proactively reduce risk and increase the safety of the system were suspended during that shutdown.”

What happened to air travel during the 2018-2019 shutdown?

During the 2018-2019 shutdown, which lasted for 35 days, TSA officers called out of work at an increased rate due to financial hardship, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News at the time. Those staffing shortages caused some TSA lines to close, which led to an increased wait time for passengers to get through security.

ABC News reported that air traffic controllers called out sick at the centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida, leading to a staffing-related ground stop at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and flight delays at some New York and Florida airports. Hours after flights were stopped, President Donald Trump ended the shutdown. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., credited the controllers with ending the shutdown, The New York Times reported.

What about train travel?

Amtrak said in a statement that its operations will continue as usual.

“Passengers planning to travel on Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor and across the country in the coming days and weeks can be assured that Amtrak will remain open for business,” Amtrak said.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Police in Austin, Texas, said they’ve finally identified the man who killed four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991 in a crime that has haunted the city.

Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers were attacked in the shop and all shot in the head, lead detective Daniel Jackson said at a news conference on Monday.

The girls were left nude and tied up, and there was evidence of sexual assault, he said. The building was set on fire before the killer fled the scene, Jackson said.

Jackson, who took over the case in 2022, said this June he started researching a spent .380 casing found at the scene.

“It had not been submitted into the NIBIN system in many years. NIBIN is a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network — it’s kind of like CODIS [the Combined DNA Index System] for shell casings,” Jackson explained.

In July, Jackson learned of a hit in NIBIN: It appeared the same gun was used in an unsolved murder in Kentucky, which shared “similar details” with the yogurt shop murders, he said.

“But aside from the MO [modus operandi] and the NIBIN hit, there are no obvious links,” he said.

Since 2008, investigators have also tried many DNA testing strategies, Jackson said, conducting new searches over the years as DNA databases have grown. From the scene, investigators had obtained the suspect’s Y-STR, which is y chromosome DNA, he said.

Jackson said police reached out to labs that conduct Y-STR typing and “asked if they can manually search against our unknown profile — and we got a match.”

“The South Carolina state lab was the only lab in the country that responded that they had a match … the full profile and every allele was the same,” Jackson said.

In August, that lab found a match to a 1990 sexual assault and murder in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson said. “And this was the profile that they had: Robert Eugene Brashers,” he said.

Austin police then retested the Y-STR DNA from under Ayers’ fingernails, he said. “It was directly compared to Brashers’ profile — and it matched,” Jackson said.

Before the yogurt shop murders, Brashers had served time in prison for shooting a woman, and he was granted parole in 1989, Jackson said.

DNA also links Brashers to multiple “unsolved murders and sexual assaults across the country,” Jackson said. “He’s good for sexual assaults and murders throughout the ’90s that he never had to stand trial for.”

Brashers died by suicide in 1999 after a standoff with officers, police said.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis called the murders “one of the most devastating and haunting cases in the city’s history.”

Barbara Ayres-Wilson, mom of victims Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, said at Monday’s news conference, “I’m full of gratitude. It has been so long, and all we ever wanted for this case was the truth.”

“We never wanted anyone to go to jail or be charged with anything that they did not do — vengeance was never it,” she said. “It was always the truth.”

At the news conference, Travis County District Attorney José Garza addressed the four suspects who were arrested in 1999.

“There are still investigative steps that are underway. That being said, the overwhelming weight of the evidence points to the guilt of one man and the innocence of four,” he said. “If the conclusions of that investigation are confirmed, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office will take responsibility for our role in prosecuting these men, in sending one to death row and one to serve life in prison. If the conclusions of APD’s investigations are confirmed, as it appears that they will be, I will say I am sorry, though I know that that will never be enough.”

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(SOUTHPORT, N.C.) — Prosecutors are weighing the death penalty for a Marine veteran they allege was the rifle-wielding “lone wolf” who opened fire from a boat on a waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina, over the weekend, killing three people and wounding eight others in what police described as a “highly premeditated” attack.

The suspect, 40-year-old Nigel Edge, is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday afternoon, officials said.

Edge, who changed his name from Sean William Debevoise in 2023, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder. He is also charged with five counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or injure.

ABC News has confirmed with the United States Marine Corps that Edge served nearly six years in the Marines from September 2003 to June 2009, and was awarded the Purple Heart. He was deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005 and 2006 and ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant, officials said.

Photos that surfaced on Sunday appear to show Edge once escorted American Idol singer Kellie Pickler to the 2012 Country Music Awards while dressed in his formal Marine uniform.

The mass shooting in Southport happened just 12 hours before another Marine veteran who also served Operation Iraqi Freedom allegedly rammed his truck through the front doors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and opened fire on the congregation with an assault weapon, killing four people and injuring eight, authorities said. The suspected Michigan gunman was killed in a gunfight with police.

During a news conference on Sunday, North Carolina authorities alleged that Edge targeted patrons of the American Fish Company on the Southport waterfront, who were on an outdoor deck listening to live music when the suspect opened fire with an assault rifle from a boat.

“Some facts that we have at this time are that we believe this was a targeted location. It appears that he acted as what we call a ‘lone wolf.’ He acted alone,” Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said at the news conference. “This is highly premeditated from what we’re seeing at this time.”

Edge was detained by the Coast Guard about a half-hour after the 10:25 p.m. shooting, when he was spotted loading his boat at a public boat ramp in Oak Island, North Carolina, just a few nautical miles from the crime scene, officials said. After being questioned by investigators, Edge was arrested and charged with the shooting.

“We understand that this suspect identifies as a combat veteran. He self-identifies. Injured in the line of duty is what he’s saying. He suffers from PTSD. We want to point those facts out,” Coring said.

Marine officials did not release details on the circumstances that led to Edge being awarded the Purple Heart, but did disclose that his last duty assignment was with the Wounded Warriors Battalion East.

Jon David, the local district attorney, said during Sunday’s news conference that more charges could be filed against Edge and that his office is considering the death penalty.

“I will say that North Carolina is a state for which the death penalty is a potential, and my office does seek it in appropriate cases,” David said. “I have a team of senior prosecutors that meets as part of a death penalty review committee, and we make sure that we thoroughly evaluate the facts and the law on a case-by-case basis.”

A motive for the Southport shooting remains under investigation. However, David said finding a motive is not essential to prosecuting the suspect.

“People frequently want to know what happened and why. As prosecutors in a courtroom, we have to prove intent. Intent and motive are very different things,” David said. “We don’t actually have to prove motive. We don’t know why people do what they do.”

David added that the thread connecting the victims in the shooting “appears to be a love of having a good time and enjoying all that Southport has to offer.”

“Sadly, a lot of the victims in this case appear to be not members of our community, but people who were here on vacation,” David said.

He said that other than a few minor brushes with the law, Edge “wasn’t quite as well known in the criminal court system.”

“There are some minor contacts over the years, but nothing significant in his past which would give us any indication that he was capable of such horror,” David said.

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(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Imelda won’t make landfall in the United States, but it will skirt close to the Southeast coast, bringing rain, strong winds, high surf, rip currents and isolated flash flooding or coastal flooding.

Here’s what you need to know:

As Imelda moves north, the storm will bring rain to the Carolinas on Monday and then stretch from the Carolinas to Virginia by Tuesday.

Imelda is forecast to bring 1 to 2 inches of rain to the South Carolina/North Carolina border on Monday and Tuesday. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, areas may see 2 to 4 inches.

Dangerous ocean conditions are also forecast from Florida to North Carolina. Rip currents are expected for much of the East Coast and high surf alerts are in place.

Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina could see waves reaching 5 to 10 feet from Monday evening through Thursday morning. On Monday and Tuesday, waves could hit 11 feet in northern Florida and southern Georgia.

A wind advisory is also in place on Monday for the Central Florida coast. Winds could hit 40 mph in Melbourne, Palm Bay and Port St. Lucie.

Imelda will move north on Monday, and then when it’s positioned east of Central Florida on Tuesday morning, it’ll take a steep turn northeast and head toward Bermuda. Imelda may hit Bermuda as a hurricane on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Humberto, a Category 4 hurricane, will bring heavy rain to Bermuda on Tuesday. Humberto will then continue to move northeast out into the Atlantic.

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