News

(NEW YORK) — A magistrate judge in Tennessee has paused accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from criminal custody for 30 days, shortly after a separate judge ruled he should be returned to Maryland if released while awaiting trial.

Abrego Garcia has been awaiting his release on bail after pleading not guilty last month to human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

“Abrego shall therefore remain in the custody of the United States Marshal pending further order, as previously directed,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said Wednesday.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys requested the stay on Monday because they were advised by the government that if Abrego Garcia were released, the Department of Homeland Security would begin removal proceedings.

“Given the uncertainty of the outcome of any removal proceedings, Mr. Abrego respectfully requests that, should the Court deny the government’s motion for revocation, the issuance of an order releasing Mr. Abrego be delayed for 30 days to allow Mr. Abrego to evaluate his options and determine whether additional relief is necessary,” his lawyers wrote on Monday.

Wednesday’s ruling came shortly after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to Maryland and blocked the administration from detaining and deporting him upon his release from criminal custody.

Xinis ruled that the U.S. government “shall restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”

Judge Xinis said her order to have Abrego Garcia placed under ICE supervision in Maryland, where he was living with his wife and children before he was mistakenly deported in March, is necessary to “provide the kind of effective relief to which a wrongfully removed alien is entitled upon return.”

The federal judge said her order, which also requires the government to provide 72 hours’ notice if it intends to deport him to a third country, is “narrowly tailored” to allow the Trump administration to initiate “lawful immigration proceedings upon Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland.”

The immigration proceedings may or may not include “lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis said.

This decision follows a separate ruling in Abrego Garcia’s criminal case where U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied the government’s motion to revoke a magistrate judge’s order for Abrego Garcia’s release. Judge Crenshaw said on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia “shall be released upon the issuance of the Magistrate Judge’s release order with conditions.”

Judge Crenshaw said he was not persuaded that “Abrego’s unlawful removal from the United States now presents a risk that he will fail to appear in court to avoid similar treatment in the future.”

In his memo, Judge Crenshaw said that testimony provided by Peter Joseph, a Homeland Security agent, that Abrego Garcia transported both Barrio 18 and MS-13 gang members cuts against “the already slim evidence demonstrating Abrego is a member of MS-13.”

“For the Court to find that Abrego is member of or in affiliation with MS13, it would have to make so many inferences from the Government’s proffered evidence in its favor that such conclusion would border on fanciful,” Judge Crenshaw wrote.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.

He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin slammed Wednesday’s rulings in a series of posts on X.

“MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and criminal illegal alien will never walk America’s streets again,” McLaughlin said in one post.

“The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can’t arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE,” she said in another.

Abrego Garcia’s immigration attorney called the rulings “a powerful rebuke of the government’s lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for [Abrego Garcia’s] due process rights.”

“A federal judge has now barred ICE from taking him back into custody in Tennessee, and ordered that any future deportation attempt must come with advance notice,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told ABC News. “After the government unlawfully deported him once without warning, this legal protection is essential. We are grateful the court recognized that Kilmar’s rights and safety are at stake, and that the government’s past actions give serious cause for concern.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LA CROSSE, Wis.) — A 22-year-old graduate student who disappeared after leaving a bar early Sunday morning has been found dead in the Mississippi River, according to the La Crosse Police Department.

Eliotte Heinz, a graduate student at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was last seen on Sunday at approximately 3:22 a.m. near the Mississippi River, police said. According to her missing person poster, Heinz was allegedly seen leaving Bronco’s Bar in La Crosse at approximately 2:30 a.m.

Heinz’s body was found in the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minnesota, on Wednesday, police said.

“This was not the outcome we had hoped for throughout this search. Our thoughts are with Eliotte’s family, friends and all those who knew Eliotte. We are grateful for the outpouring of support from so many within the La Crosse community, the State of Wisconsin and nationally to locate Eliotte,” police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Police said they are continuing to investigate and “will await the results of an autopsy for an official cause of death.”

Viterbo University said in a statement the community is “heartbroken by this loss” and extends “our deepest sympathies to her families and friends.”

“There are no words that can ease the pain of losing someone so young, with so much life ahead of her. Our hearts go out to to Eliotte’s family. We hold them in our prayers and stand with them in their grief,” Viterbo University President Rick Trietley.

Earlier Tuesday, police had said the search for Heinz remained active, with “numerous resources” being utilized as they continue to receive tips.

Members of the community gathered to search for Heinz and hand out copies of her missing person poster.

Heinz’s family had asked for residents in the area to review home security camera footage from early Sunday morning between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., saying “even the smallest detail could make a difference.”

“The outpouring of supporting in the search efforts for Eliotte has been overwhelming, and we are deeply grateful for the kindness, prayers and encouragement from the community and beyond,” the family said in a statement shared on the university’s social media on Tuesday prior to the discovery of her body.

Viterbo will hold a memorial service for Heinz this fall, “in coordination with her family once students return to campus,” the university said in a statement.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers from both parties have so far rejected steep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed by the Trump administration and reiterated their support for a fully staffed National Weather Service (NWS) during recent committee meetings, which included key appropriations markup sessions.

While the House and Senate spending bills for fiscal year 2026 are still in the early stages of the legislative process, initial drafts indicate bipartisan pushback against the significant cuts outlined in the administration’s budget proposal, released earlier this year.

For fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1, the Trump administration proposed cutting NOAA’s budget by roughly 25%, including the elimination of its research division, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and making major reductions to other key offices such as the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), the world’s largest provider of weather and climate data.

The budget proposal stated, “The FY 2026 budget eliminates all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. It also does not fund Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, the National Sea Grant College Program, Sea Grant Aquaculture Research, or the National Oceanographic Partnership Program.”

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies advanced a spending bill with bipartisan support last week that would fund NOAA at levels mostly in line with budgets of previous years.

The fiscal year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill provides roughly $5.8 billion to NOAA in 2026, a 6% decrease from the previous year. However, it restores a majority of funding for NOAA’s Operations, Research and Facilities (ORF) account, which includes OAR. While specific spending details have not yet been released, this would likely spare many critical research labs and climate institutes from potential cuts.

During the July 15 markup session, Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., expressed his support for the National Weather Service, emphasizing the recent toll of devastating flooding hitting the country.

“Flooding has inflicted much pain on this nation over the last few months,” he said. “From my district in Kentucky to Texas, now is the time to ensure the National Weather Service is equipped with the funding it needs to warn and protect our citizens.”

At the start of the markup session, Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, voiced concerns over both the proposed NOAA budget and recent staffing and funding cuts at the National Weather Service.

“Weather forecasts are not waste, fraud and abuse,” she said. “I ask my colleagues, did anyone come to your town halls and complain that the National Weather Service has too many meteorologists? Too many people issuing advisories, watches and warnings on severe storms?”

DeLauro also cited concerns from Bill Turner, Connecticut’s state emergency management director, who said the situation is “a very fragile house of cards right now, and we need them to continue… It really could be catastrophic in a lot of ways for our state if they go down that path of stopping the National Weather Service and their functionality.”

The bill now advances to the full committee for a markup on Thursday, July 24.

The Senate’s version of the bill allocates approximately $6.14 billion to NOAA for fiscal year 2026, just below the $6.18 billion approved for 2025. While this represents a modest overall decrease, the Senate Committee on Appropriations voted to boost spending for the agency’s Operations, Research and Facilities (ORF) account, adding $68.7 million. The increase means more available funding that could go to key offices such as OAR, NWS and NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service).

The current Senate bill explicitly signals support for NOAA’s mission, including weather and climate research.

“The Committee strongly supports Climate Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes for their critical role in delivering high-quality weather information and driving economic benefits across the United States,” the bill states.

The bill also addresses staffing concerns at local NWS offices across the country and provides additional funding to ensure they become fully staffed.

The bill’s authors write, “Insufficient staffing levels risk compromising public safety and the NWS’s mission to protect lives and property. The Committee provides an additional $10,000,000 for Analyze, Forecast and Support and urges the NWS to prioritize recruitment, retention, and training initiatives to ensure all weather forecast offices (WFOs) are fully staffed.”

While introducing the bill, Jerry Moran, R- Kan., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Justice, said, “NOAA, and particularly the National Weather Service, is a hugely important component of what this bill funds, and this bill recognizes that importance.” He added that the bill “fully funds the National Weather Service” and “eliminates any reduction in the workforce.”

However, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, raised concerns that the bill still gave too much discretion to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to determine the staffing levels needed to fulfill the agency’s mission and statutory obligation — “the Office of Management and Budget which clearly made the judgment that the National Weather Service has too many human beings working,” Schatz said.

He introduced an amendment that would have required the administration to maintain full-time staffing at levels in place as of Sept. 30, 2024, but it was rejected along party lines.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act on July 17 by a vote of 19-10.

What does the Trump Administration want to cut?
The administration’s budget proposal calls for eliminating the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) as a NOAA Line Office, with several of its functions transferred to the National Weather Service and the National Ocean Service. OAR leads NOAA’s weather and climate research and develops many of the forecasting tools meteorologists rely on to produce timely and accurate forecasts.

The proposed budget would include shutting down NOAA’s nationwide network of research labs and cooperative institutes. Among them is the Global Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, a critical tool in modern weather forecasting, was first developed more than a decade ago. The HRRR model helps meteorologists track everything from severe thunderstorms to extreme rainfall to wildfire smoke.

The Global Monitoring Laboratory, also based in Boulder, oversees operations at Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii’s Big Island. This observatory has maintained the world’s longest continuous observation of atmospheric carbon dioxide and has been crucial to our understanding of how human-caused greenhouse gas emissions fuel global warming.

NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, Florida, plays a vital role in operational hurricane forecasting. The lab develops cutting-edge tropical weather models that have significantly improved forecast accuracy in recent decades. National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasters set a record for forecast track accuracy in 2024, according to a NOAA report. NHC issued 347 official forecasts during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and its track predictions set accuracy records at every forecast time period.

Who will lead NOAA next?
Earlier this month, during a confirmation hearing, Dr. Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head NOAA, said he supports the administration’s proposal to significantly cut the agency’s budget arguing the reductions could be achieved by shifting work from research to operations without impacting “mission essential functions.”

Jacobs also said if confirmed, he would “ensure that staffing the weather service offices is a top priority,” adding that, “It’s really important for the people to be there because they have relationships with the people in the local community. They’re a trusted source.”

NOAA’s 2025 budget costs Americans less than $20 per person this year.

ABC News reached out to NOAA for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia upon his release from criminal custody in Tennessee.

Abrego Garcia has been awaiting his release on bail after pleading not guilty last month to human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. government “shall restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”

Judge Xinis also ordered the government to provide written notice to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys if they intend to remove him to a third country.

This decision follows a separate ruling in Abrego Garcia’s criminal case where U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied the government’s motion to revoke a magistrate judge’s order for Abrego Garcia’s release. Judge Crenshaw said on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia “shall be released upon the issuance of the Magistrate Judge’s release order with conditions.”

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.

He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland.

The government has indicated it intends to detain Abrego Garcia and deport him to a third country if he is released from custody.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Prosecutors have filed murder charges against a man accused of shooting and killing a woman who was walking her dogs in San Leandro, California, earlier this month.

Rohith Sunil, 21, was charged with felony murder, assault with a semi-automatic gun and carrying a loaded weapon in public in the July 17 shooting death of 41-year-old Casey Way, according to the Office of District Attorney of Alameda.

Prosecutors have also included sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a firearm causing death.

Way was walking her dogs with her boyfriend when she was allegedly approached by Sunil, according to prosecutors. He allegedly had a conversation with the couple before suddenly pulling out a handgun and shooting her, prosecutors said.

Way was transported to Eden hospital after suffering from a single gunshot wound. She later succumbed to her injuries, according to a probable cause declaration.

Way’s boyfriend told police that the couple was walking from their apartment to a liquor store when a black sedan pulled up alongside them and parked. A man wearing a black ski mask and all black clothing and who had a tattoo under one of his eyes got out of the car and confronted them, asking if the city they were in was Oakland and how to get back to San Jose, according to the declaration.

Way then began to look up directions on her phone to help the suspect. As she was doing so, the suspect noticed she was wearing a red bandanna and began to ask her if she was in a gang, which Way and her boyfriend denied, according to the declaration.

The suspect then pulled out a black pistol and pointed it at the couple, who backed away from him.

“The suspect laughed and racked the pistol slide, ejecting a live round onto the ground. The suspect then pointed the firearm at the victim and fired a single shot, striking her on the right side of her body,” the witness told police, according to the declaration. The suspect then allegedly got back in the vehicle and fled the scene.

Way’s boyfriend told police that he did not know the suspect and that this was a “random act,” according to the declaration.

Sunil is being held in Santa Rita Jail without bail, according to jail records.

Sunil “personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, and caused great bodily injury and death to Casey Lyn Way,” and “inflicted great bodily injury on another person,” a criminal complaint against Sunil said.

On July 18, Dublin Police Department officers arrested Sunil after they received a call from a victim who said he was being followed around by a vehicle, according to the declaration.

Police located the vehicle and contact the individual inside, Sunil, and while speaking with him a semiautomatic firearm fell out of his waistband, according to the declaration. Dublin officers were not aware of the murder investigation but booked Sunil at Santa Rita Jail.

Sunil was interviewed by police and he allegedly admitted to having the gun and being the sole occupant of the car on the day of the murder. Police say he told them he had been “black out” drunk from drinking at a friend’s house and denied knowing anything about the murder, according to the declaration.

Sunil matched the appearance and clothing description given to police by witnesses to the murder as did his vehicle.

Sunil is not listed with the Department of Justice as the registered owner of a pistol, revolver or other firearm capable of being concealed on his person, according to court documents.

Sunil’s plea hearing is scheduled for Monday.

If convicted, Sunil could be sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison, according to the district attorney’s office. Attorney information for Sunil was not immediately available.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.