(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for a Venezuelan man who is currently imprisoned in a notorious Salvadoran prison filed a habeas petition on Wednesday, asking a federal judge to order the immediate release of their client.
Instead of deporting Edicson David Quintero Chacon to Venezuela, the government is “paying” for his “torture in El Salvador with U.S. taxpayer dollars in flagrant violation of the United States Constitution,” his attorneys said in the filing.
According to the habeas petition, on June 13, 2024, Quintero Chacon went to his routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in North Carolina where he was detained and taken into custody and transferred to a detention center in Georgia. Then, in September 2024, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. to Venezuela.
On February 10, 2025, he filed a habeas petition challenging his detention in Georgia, saying he “was not fighting [his] case anymore” and that he “just wanted to go home.”
A month later, after being transferred to a detention center in Texas, Quintero Chacon was put on one of the first flights to El Salvador with more than a hundred other Venezuelan migrants.
“Mr. Quintero’s continuing detention—now approaching a year—is lawless,” his attorneys said in the petition. “There is no statutory authority that could possibly justify his continued custody under or by color of the authority of the U.S. government, let alone at CECOT.”
The government’s decision to transfer Quintero Chacon to CECOT, his attorneys said, “will amount to an effective life sentence—and possibly a death sentence.”
Quintero Chacon’s attorneys said in the filing that he has not been charged with or convicted of a crime in any country.
“He is a loving husband, father of two small children, brother, and son, and a skilled carpenter and fisherman,” his attorneys said in the petition.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the habeas petition and questions about Quintero Chacon.
In a 5-4 decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said on Wednesday they plan to refile more than a hundred habeas claims in Washington for the men who were deported on March 15.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he was blocked Thursday from entering the El Salvador prison that is holding the Maryland resident who the courts say was erroneously deported from the United States last month.
The Maryland senator, who flew to the country on Wednesday, shared a video on social media showing guards stopping him and others from entering CECOT, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held.
The Supreme Court and a Maryland federal judge ordered that the U.S. government “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. after the Department of Justice said in court filings that the 29-year-old father was wrongfully deported because of an “administrative error.” The Trump administration has alleged it cannot bring him back and claimed outside of court that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Van Hollen was joined by Chris Newman, who he said is the attorney for Abrego Garcia’s wife and mother, and said they are trying to check on the deported man’s condition.
The video also showed Van Hollen and Newman speaking to prison guards, who were visibly shaking their heads “no.”
“These soldiers were ordered to prevent us from going any farther from this spot,” Van Hollen said. “I understand we’re about three kilometers now from CECOT, and as you can see, they’re letting other cars go by, but they stopped us because they’re under orders not to allow us to proceed to check on the well-being of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”
Over the last couple of weeks, Republican members of Congress have gained access to the prison and posted pictures on their social media pages from inside the complex.
(WASHINGTON) — Longtime Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell will face constituents Thursday in his home state of Kentucky as Republican lawmakers continue to face hostile crowds raising issues with President Donald Trump’s policies.
Party leadership has advised against holding in-person events after some lawmakers faced volatile crowds back home in their districts and questions about cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, Trump’s tariffs and his deportation policy.
McConnell announced in February that he would not seek an eighth term in the Senate. He stepped down from his role as party leader last year after a record-breaking 18 years atop the GOP conference.
Since ending his tenure as leader, McConnell has been one of few Republican senators willing to challenge Trump. He has voted against Trump Cabinet nominees and been critical of Trump on his tariff policy, his efforts at election reform, and holding direct negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
He will speak on Thursday to the Glasgow-Barren County Rotary Club.
Angry constituents have confronted Republican lawmakers who chose to hold in-person town halls this week.
GOP Sen. Charles Grassley faced a contentious crowd on Tuesday in Iowa who peppered him with questions about Trump’s tariff and deportation policies and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashing federal agencies.
The same day, Republican Rep. Brian Mast faced pushback from angry constituents who pressed him on immigration enforcement actions and potential cuts to Social Security at three town halls he held in his Florida district. A scuffle broke out in the audience at one event before security broke it up.
On Tuesday evening, two protesters were tased by law enforcement and others were escorted out after they interrupted a town hall held by GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters.
(WASHINGTON) — Longtime Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell will face constituents Thursday in his home state of Kentucky as Republican lawmakers continue to face hostile crowds raising issues with President Donald Trump’s policies.
Party leadership has advised against holding in-person events after some lawmakers faced volatile crowds back home in their districts and questions about cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, Trump’s tariffs and his deportation policy.
McConnell announced in February that he would not seek an eighth term in the Senate. He stepped down from his role as party leader last year after a record-breaking 18 years atop the GOP conference.
Since ending his tenure as leader, McConnell has been one of few Republican senators willing to challenge Trump. He has voted against Trump Cabinet nominees and been critical of Trump on his tariff policy, his efforts at election reform, and holding direct negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
He will speak on Thursday to the Glasgow-Barren County Rotary Club.
Angry constituents have confronted Republican lawmakers who chose to hold in-person town halls this week.
GOP Sen. Charles Grassley faced a contentious crowd on Tuesday in Iowa who peppered him with questions about Trump’s tariff and deportation policies and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashing federal agencies.
The same day, Republican Rep. Brian Mast faced pushback from angry constituents who pressed him on immigration enforcement actions and potential cuts to Social Security at three town halls he held in his Florida district. A scuffle broke out in the audience at one event before security broke it up.
On Tuesday evening, two protesters were tased by law enforcement and others were escorted out after they interrupted a town hall held by GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security is demanding “detailed records” on Harvard University’s student visa holders, according to a statement from the department.
The school must turn over student visa holders’ records, specifically those pertaining to “illegal and violent activities,” or risk losing the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Harvard in a letter sent by the department.
The SEVP allows for noncitizen students to study at the university under a specific visa.
Noem told Harvard it is a “privilege” to have foreign students attend Harvard, “not a guarantee.”
“The United States Government understands that Harvard University relies heavily on foreign student funding from over 10,000 foreign students to build and maintain their substantial endowment,” Noem wrote in a letter dated April 16 and obtained by ABC News. “At the same time, your institution has created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to Harvard’s failure to condemn antisemitism.”
Noem requested that Harvard provide a tranche of information to the department to keep its SEVP status, asking it for information on student visa holders’ “known” illegally activity, violent activity, threats to students or faculty, disciplinary actions taken as a result of being involved in a protest, whether a student obstructed the school’s learning environment and the coursework that a student is taking to maintain the visa status, according to the letter.
“In the event the school fails to respond to this request within the timeframe provided … SEVP will automatically withdraw the school’s certification,” she wrote.
DHS is also pulling $2 million in grants from Harvard — part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to halt grant funding for the university.
“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said in a press release. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
On Monday, Harvard said it is refusing to comply with a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism subsequently announced a multibillion-dollar freeze on funding to the university.
The administration’s task force said it would withhold $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and $60 million in multiyear contract value to the institution.
In a statement, Harvard said it is aware of the letter sent by DHS and “values the rule of law,” according to a university spokesperson.
“Harvard is aware of the Department of Homeland Security’s letter regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas, which — like the Administration’s announcement of the freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, and reports of the revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status — follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice filed notice Wednesday that it will appeal the order from a federal judge requiring the government to facilitate the return of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, on the same day the it released two documents that were previously used to allegedly tie him to the criminal gang MS-13.
The two forms the government present as evidence — a gang field interview sheet from the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland and an additional form from the Department of Homeland Security — base Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang affiliation on his clothing and information from a confidential informant described as a “past proven and reliable source of information.”
The reports provide no other information beyond the clothing and confidential informant to justify the claim that Abrego Garcia is a ranking gang member.
Abrego Garcia is entering his second month in an El Salvador mega-prison after he was deported there on March 15 despite being issued a 2019 court order barring his deportation to his home country due to the fear of persecution.
His attorneys and his wife have denied he is a member of MS-13, and his lawyers have called into question the validity of the document by alleging the detective who authored it was later suspended.
DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News’ Jay O’Brien on Tuesday that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was the result of a “clerical error” and that “he should have been sent to a detention center in Mexico, Nicaragua, Egypt.”
According to the gang field interview sheet – a report of the police’s interaction with Abrego Garcia – he was approached by police in 2019 after they said he was loitering in a Home Depot parking lot in Hyattsville, Maryland.
The report noted that Abrego Garcia wore a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie emblazoned with images of rolls of money covering the eyes and ears of former U.S. presidents, which police claimed tied Abrego Garcia to the gang.
“Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture,” the report said, noting that the meaning of the clothing is “see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil.”
“Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13,” the report said.
According to the report, officers contacted a “past proven and reliable source of information” who said that Abrego Garcia was a ranking member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia had the rank of “Chequeo” and had the moniker “Chele,” according to the informant. According to the DOJ, a chequeo is a low level member of MS-13.
The DHS report added that Abrego Garcia was in possession of $1,178 at the time of his arrest.
The report noted that Abrego Garcia was in the company of three other men when he was arrested, one of whom, according to police, had an extensive criminal history and was known as an active gang member. Another was linked to MS-13 based on a confidential source, the report said.
Police said they were unable to link the third man to the gang, writing that “MS-13 gang members are only allowed to hang around other members or prospects for the gang.”
The other document — a DHS I-213 form — cited the Prince George’s County Police Department field interview sheet to claim that Abrego Garcia was “identified” and “validated” as a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia denied having any information about the gang or human smuggling, according to the DHS report.
An immigration judge who denied Abrego Garcia bond in 2019 cited both reports as the main evidence to conclude he posed a risk to the community.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have highlighted apparent inconsistencies in the DHS report, saying it offers contradictory assessments regarding whether Abrego Garcia feared being removed to El Salvador.
His attorneys have also highlighted that the confidential information linked Abrego Garcia to the Western clique of MS-13, which principally operates on Long Island, where they say he has never lived.
The report also noted that the two other alleged gang members at the Home Depot parking lot were members of a different MS-13 clique.
Wednesday’s developments came a day after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered government officials to testify under oath because, she said, they had “done nothing to aid in Abrego Garcia’s release from custody and return to the United States,” despite the Supreme Court directing the Trump administration to “‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.”
Per Judge Xinis’ orders, the Trump administration on Wednesday submitted its daily status update on Abrego Garcia, saying that were “no further updates.”
“Given the government’s prior clear and unequivocal notice to the Court regarding how the government will facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return within the contours of existing law and regulation, there are no further updates,” Joseph Mazzarra, the Acting General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, said in the update.
(NEW YORK) — Rep. Elise Stefanik, a key Republican ally of President Donald Trump, is considering a run for governor of New York, a source familiar with her thinking told ABC News.
Stefanik’s office didn’t immediately comment.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is running for reelection in 2026 in the Empire State and is vying for her second full term in office.
President Donald Trump nominated Stefanik to be the United Nations ambassador and she was replaced as House Republican Conference Chair by Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain.
However, on March 27, a week before her Senate confirmation vote, Trump announced that he was withdrawing her nomination, citing the razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
“There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations. Therefore, Elise will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“This is about stepping up as a team, and I am doing that as a leader, to ensure that we can take hold of this mandate and deliver these historic results,” Stefanik told Fox News that evening.
Addison Dick, a spokesman for the New York State Democrats, dismissed the news of Stefanik’s possible run, claiming in a statement that the New York GOP “can’t field a serious candidate from their pathetic crew of Trump minions.”
“New Yorkers want nothing to do with the clown show of Trump loyalists who are only focused on enabling Trump’s agenda that is raising costs, gutting health care, and attacking New Yorkers’ freedoms,” he said in a statement.
The upstate New York congresswoman has been rising among the ranks on the Hill for her hard conservative stances.
She played a key role in the congressional response to antisemitism on college campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war. She’s also accused the United Nations of antisemitism.
Although largely Democratic, New York state has seen voters shift red over the last couple of years.
Hochul won the 2022 election with just 377,834 votes, roughly 53% of the total vote, beating then U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin. In the 2018 election, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo won with over 1.4 million votes, roughly 59.55% of the total vote, beating then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has found probable cause that the Trump administration acted in contempt of court when officials last month defied his order to turn around two planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
The administration’s “willful disobedience of judicial orders” without consequences would make “a solemn mockery” of “the Constitution itself,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote Wednesday.
Boasberg last month ordered that the government turn around two flights carrying more than 200 alleged Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the gang is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Authorities failed to turn the flights around.
Boasberg faulted the Trump administration for conducting a “hurried removal operation” on March 15 and 16 in the hours after he issued an order blocking the deportations and ordering the men returned to the United States.
“As this Opinion will detail, the Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order,” he wrote.
Boasberg noted that he gave the Trump administration “ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions” yet “none of their responses has been satisfactory.”
While the Supreme Court ultimately vacated his court order, Judge Boasberg concluded that the Trump administration still defied the order during the three weeks it was in effect, even if the order suffered from a “legal defect.”
“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make ‘a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself,'” he wrote.
Boasberg gave the Trump Administration a one-week deadline to file “a declaration explaining the steps they have taken and will take to do so.”
The way to “purge” the potential finding of contempt, Boasberg said, would be to obey his initial order.
“The most obvious way for Defendants to do so here is by asserting custody of the individuals who were removed in violation of the Court’s classwide TRO so that they might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability through a habeas proceeding,” Boasberg wrote, referring to the temporary restraining order he issued.
“Per the terms of the TRO, the Government would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland. The Court will also give Defendants an opportunity to propose other methods of coming into compliance, which the Court will evaluate.”
If the Trump Administration does not wish to purge Boasberg’s contempt finding, the judge said he will “proceed to identify the individual(s) responsible for the contumacious conduct by determining whose “specific act or omission” caused the noncompliance.”
Boasberg said he will begin by requiring declarations from the government, and if those prove to be unsatisfactory, he will “proceed either to hearings with live witness testimony under oath or to depositions conducted by Plaintiffs.”
As a final potential step, Boasberg raised the remarkable prospect he could appoint an independent attorney to prosecute the government for its contempt.
“The next step would be for the Court, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, to “request that the contempt be prosecuted by an attorney for the government,” Boasberg said. “If the Government “declines” or “the interest of justice requires,” the Court will “appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is in El Salvador to get answers about the wrongful deportation of a Maryland man by the Trump administration, he said in a video ahead of boarding a flight on Wednesday.
Van Hollen said he had been planning the trip for the last few days and that he hopes to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in person and see his condition.
Abrego Garcia, who reportedly fled political persecution from El Salvador and was deported last month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency following an “administrative error,” remains in the CECOT prison despite court orders requesting the U.S. government “facilitate” bringing him back to the United States.
“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home,” Van Hollen said in a video.
He posted another video after he landed and said he was on his way to meet with members of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.
It is unclear if anyone else is joining the senator on the trip.
Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member and was able to be deported because of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
However, the Department of Justice has not made that accusation in court papers and admitted the deportation was an error. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have been fighting the deportation for weeks in court.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the 29-year-old father, who had no criminal record in the U.S., was illegally deported. However, Bondi has claimed El Salvador’s government is not giving him up.
“What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable,” Van Hollen said.
Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Leaders We Deserve, a political organization led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg, announced Wednesday that it will spend $20 million to help elect younger leaders — including primary challengers to House Democrats who are in safely Democratic seats.
The move puts Hogg, a member of party leadership as one of its vice chairs, at odds with the party establishment and other Democratic leaders, who usually shy away from supporting challengers to Democratic incumbents.
But it comes as Democratic-aligned voters express discontent with how the Democratic Party is responding to the second Trump administration — and as some within the party call for a new generation of leadership and representation in Congress amid consternation with some older House and Senate Democrats.
“While [President Donald] Trump creates new existential crises every day, too many elected leaders in the Democratic Party are either unwilling or unable to meet the moment,” Hogg, 25, said in a statement.
“We need a stronger Democratic Party that is ready to fight back,” he added. “Part of making that a reality is replacing ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel members with Democrats who have the energy, passion, and vision to meet this moment with the urgency our country deserves.”
A few Democrats have already announced they will challenge longtime House members in the 2026 congressional primaries. Researcher and social media personality Kat Abughazaleh has announced she is mounting a primary challenge to 14-term Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. Schakowsky has not said whether she will run for reelection.
The announcement from Leaders We Deserve, a group Hogg co-founded in 2023 and of which he serves as president, did not name any specific candidates the group plans to support. The group said it will not challenge “front-line” members facing tough reelection battles against Republicans or “older Democratic leaders like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi” who it said have been taking on Trump and Republicans successfully.
The announcement was first reported by the New York Times.
In a statement to ABC News, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin thanked Hogg for his work for the party but reiterated the DNC’s position of not taking sides in primary elections.
“David Hogg is a passionate advocate and we are grateful for his service to the Democratic Party, whether it be in his role as a DNC Vice Chair or in an outside capacity,” Martin wrote. “In order to ensure we are as effective as possible at electing Democrats to office, it is the DNC’s longstanding position that primary voters — not the national party — determine their Democratic candidates for the general election.”
According to the DNC, the party does not intervene in primaries both to allow voters to express their views and to maintain relationships with candidates. The DNC also shared that Hogg was the only party officer not to sign a “neutrality policy” that mandates those officials do not take any actions that may throw their or the party’s impartiality into question.
The party said it will be figuring out unspecified next steps with Hogg and party committees.
Hogg was elected as one of the DNC’s vice chairs in the party’s February elections.
