Abrego Garcia returned to US to face charges related to human smuggling

Abrego Garcia wore a short-sleeved, white, button-down shirt during his appearance after being returned from El Salvador.

Asked if he understood the charges against him, he told the judge: “Sí. Lo entiendo.” An interpreter then said: “Yes. I understand.”

Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville determined that he will be held in custody until at least next Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit at the center of the case called the decision “a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people.”

“Elon Musk may have left Washington, D.C., but his impact continues to harm millions of people,” the plaintiffs said.

The blowup between the president of the United States and the world’s richest man has played out on social media in real time, the latest, perhaps ultimate example of how X has become Elon Musk’s personal platform, his own reality show where anyone can tune in to watch the mercurial twists and turns of his unpredictable personality.

And tune in they did.

The feud has birthed countless memes, hot takes and speculation, with some X users bringing out the popcorn emojis while rejoicing that the site has returned to its “fun” roots — back when it was called Twitter. While it’s not yet clear if the feud will have any permanent effects on X’s audience size or advertising business, its owner reposted a meme late Thursday suggesting that, at least for now, it was good for getting active users to tune into the platform.

▶ Read more about the Musk-Trump dispute and X

When he first ran for office, the president appeared to be a new kind of Republican when it came to gay rights.

Years earlier he overturned the rules of his Miss Universe pageant to let a transgender contestant compete. He said Caitlyn Jenner could use any bathroom at Trump Tower that she wanted. And he was the first president to name an openly gay person to a Cabinet-level position.

But since returning to office this year, Trump has engaged in what activists say is an unprecedented assault on the LGBTQ+ community.

“I am deeply concerned that we’re going to see it all be taken away in the next four years,” said Kevin Jennings, who leads the advocacy group Lambda Legal.

Trump’s defenders insist he has not acted in a discriminatory way, and they point to public polling that shows widespread support for policies like restrictions on transgender athletes.

“He’s working to establish common sense once again,” said Ed Williams, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans.

▶ Read more about Trump and the LGBTQ+ community

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he said that during his call Thursday with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president agreed to restore the exports.

China had slowed them amid the countries’ trade war, threatening a range of U.S. manufacturers that relied on the critical materials.

The was no immediate confirmation from China.

Federal authorities moved Friday to drop a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Sheetz convenience store chain, part of a broader effort by the administration to halt the use of a key tool for enforcing civil rights laws.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the top federal agency for enforcing workers rights, filed a court motion to dismiss the lawsuit, citing Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to deprioritize the use of “disparate impact liability” in civil rights enforcement.

Disparate impact liability holds that policies that are neutral on their face can violate civil rights laws if they impose artificial barriers that disadvantage different demographic groups. The concept has been used to root out practices that close off minorities, women, people with disabilities, older adults or other groups from certain jobs, or keep them from accessing credit or equal pay.

In the Sheetz case, filed in 2024 under the Biden administration, the EEOC had claimed that the company’s policy of refusing to hire anyone who failed its criminal background checks discriminated against Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants.

▶ Read more about the EEOC and the Sheetz lawsuit

The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump could mean Tesla’s plans for self-driving cars hit a roadblock, SpaceX flies fewer missions for NASA, Starlink gets fewer overseas satellite contracts and the social media platform X loses advertisers.

Maybe, that is. It all depends on Trump’s appetite for revenge and how the dispute unfolds.

Joked Telemetry Insight auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid, “Since Trump has no history of retaliating against perceived adversaries, he’ll probably just let this pass.”

Turning serious, he sees trouble ahead for Musk.

“For someone that rants so much about government pork, all of Elon’s businesses are extremely dependent on government largesse, which makes him vulnerable.”

Trump and the federal government also stand to lose from a long-running dispute, but not as much as Musk.

▶ Read more about potential losses for Musk

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Biden-era fuel economy standards for gas-powered cars and trucks were illegal and moved to reverse them.

Combined with Senate language in the pending budget bill to eliminate penalties for exceeding standards regulating how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel, automakers could come under less pressure from regulators to reduce pollution. Ultimately the nation’s use of electric vehicles could be slowed.

The moves align with the administration’s ongoing efforts to slash federal support for EVs. Trump has pledged to end what he called an EV “mandate,” referring incorrectly to former President Joe Biden’s goal for half of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.

No federal policy has required auto companies to sell — or car buyers to purchase — EVs, although California and other states have imposed rules requiring all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.

The department says it is “actively assessing how to reintegrate” the workers after a judge blocked the agency’s sweeping downsizing.

A department email told workers on leave that they will not be terminated June 10 as originally planned. It asked them to share whether they have gained other employment, saying that request aims to “support a smooth and informed return to duty.”

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause a court order blocking the layoffs. A department spokesperson said the agency is complying with the order but intends to win its legal battle over the downsizing.

The department laid off about 1,300 employees in March, reducing its staff by about half. Workers have been on paid leave since then, and none have been asked to return to their jobs, according to their union.

A federal judge in Boston blocked the layoffs in May in response to two lawsuits.

“There’s no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Even if he were to be convicted, the Trump administration would still have to return to immigration court if it wants to deport him to El Salvador.

Sandoval-Moshenberg also expects Abrego Garcia’s case in Maryland to continue as a judge there considers whether the administration has obeyed her orders.

Cathy Lanier, the chief security officer of the National Football League, applauded the new order, saying more and more drones have flown into restricted airspace during games.

She called the order, which could train law enforcement agencies to respond in real time, “the most significant step taken to address the issue.”

U.S. drone makers also praised the order, which prioritizes drones made domestically over foreign ones, for helping ensure the country will lead in the industry.

Amazon Prime Air said it welcomes the fact that rules would be expedited to let companies use drones beyond operators’ line of sight, or farther away.

In a separate DOGE-related case, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington argued the group is a federal agency and must be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

But the Trump administration says DOGE is just a presidential advisory body aimed at rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, which would make it exempt from requests for documents under FOIA.

The justices did not decide that issue Friday, but the conservative majority held that U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled too broadly in ordering documents be turned over to CREW.

The Supreme Court’s three liberal judges dissented.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is one of the first, if not the first, person to be released from a notorious prison in El Salvador, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

“So it’s going to be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the way in which he was treated in that prison by the Salvadoran authorities,” he said.

“What happened today is an abuse of power,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia. He said he plans to meet with him soon and will “vigorously defend” him against the new charges.

“This administration … instead of simply admitting their mistake, they’ll stop at nothing at all, including some of the most preposterous charges imageable, just to avoid admitting they made a mistake, which is what everyone knows happened in this case,” he said.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of labor unions and retirees represented by the group Democracy Forward. It’s one of more than two dozen lawsuits filed over DOGE’s work, which has included deep cuts at federal agencies and large-scale layoffs.

The Trump administration says DOGE needs access to Social Security systems to carry out its mission of targeting waste and fraud in the federal government, which Musk called an alleged hotbed of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that DOGE’s efforts at Social Security amounted to a “fishing expedition” based on “little more than suspicion” of fraud and allowing unfettered access puts Americans’ private information at risk.

Her ruling did allow access to anonymous data for staffers who have undergone training and background checks, or wider access for those who have detailed a specific need. The Trump administration has said DOGE can’t work effectively with those restrictions.

An appeals court then refused to immediately lift the block on DOGE access, though it split along ideological lines. Conservative judges in the minority said there’s no evidence that the team has done any “targeted snooping” or exposed personal information.

The Supreme Court was also split along ideological lines, with only the three liberal judges dissenting.

The five members of the far-right militant group claim their constitutional rights were violated when they were prosecuted for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola are seeking unspecified compensatory damages plus 6% interest and $100 million in punitive damages plus interest.

The lawsuit claims the men were arrested with insufficient probable cause and government agents later “found” fake incriminating evidence. They also claim they were held for years in pretrial detention, often in solitary confinement.

“The Plaintiffs themselves did not obstruct the proceedings at the Capitol, destroy government property, resist arrest, conspire to impede the police, or participate in civil disorder, nor did they plan for or order anyone else to do so,” the lawsuit says.

Tarrio, Biggs, Rehl and Nordean were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes for their participation in the Capitol riot. Pezzola was acquitted on the conspiracy charge but convicted of stealing a police officer’s riot shield and using it to smash a window.

Trump granted pardons to nearly all the more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol. Tarrio received a pardon, the other four plaintiffs had their sentences commuted.

He is also accused of bringing MS-13 gang members into the U.S. from Central America and abusing women he was transporting, according to court documents. An alleged co-conspirator also said he participated in a killing in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging a judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial.

“Later, as part of his immigration proceedings in the United States, the defendant claimed he could not return to El Salvador because he was in fear of retribution from the 18th Street gang,” prosecutors wrote. “While partially true — the defendant, according to the information received by the Government, was in fear of retaliation by the 18th Street gang — the underlying reason for the retaliation was the defendant’s own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member’s mother.”

Authorities in Tennessee released video of a 2022 traffic stop last month. The body camera recording shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Officers then discussed among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking because nine people were traveling without luggage. One of the officers said, “He’s hauling these people for money.” Another said he had $1,400 in an envelope.

An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the video’s release in May that he saw no evidence of a crime.

“But the point is not the traffic stop — it’s that Mr. Abrego Garcia deserves his day in court,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

The grand jury found that he made the trips as part of a ring that trafficked guns, drugs, children and women, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

She said co-conspirators alleged that he abused women he was transporting and played a role in the killing of a rival gang member’s mother.

“They found this was his full time job, not a contractor,” Bondi said of the grand jury. “He was a smuggler of humans and children and women.”

The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The justices sided with the Trump administration in its first Supreme Court appeal involving DOGE, the team once led by billionaire Elon Musk.

The high court halted an order from a judge in Maryland restricting the team’s access to the Social Security Administration under federal privacy laws.

▶ Read more about the Supreme Court ruling

Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement, was being returned to the United States to face criminal charges related to what the Trump administration said was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally.

He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country in El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said.

“This is what American justice looks like,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, and the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver’s license, according to the DHS report. It said he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring people to perform construction work.

The instruction comes even as diplomatic outposts are to reject future visa applications from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries starting next week under Trump’s new travel ban.

In a cable sent Friday, the department said “no action should be taken for issued visas which have already left the consular section” and “no visas issued prior to the effective date should be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.”

It suggests that there should be no entry issues for current visa holders from affected countries after the restrictions take effect June 9 at midnight ET.

However ports of entry are not controlled by State, and it will be up to the Department of Homeland Security and individual Customs and Border Patrol agents to determine if visa holders are eligible to enter.

The cable, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, says the only people who should be denied entry are those currently outside the country who do not have a valid visa on the effective date.

The orders will help clear the way for companies to use drones beyond operators’ line of sight, while also imposing restrictions to help protect against terrorism, espionage and public safety threats.

Drones have a wide range of civilian uses, but the war in Ukraine has highlighted some potential threats that concern officials as the World Cup and Olympics approach in the U.S.

White House officials also say regulations have slowed development of supersonic flights and flying cars.

Trump says he’s planning to build a new ballroom at the White House, posting on his social media Friday that he “inspected the site” on the grounds.

Trump pledged it would go up “quickly” and be a “wonderful addition” to the complex, but provided no design details about the location, how much it would cost or who would foot the bill.

Trump has long complained that the East Room is too small for the large events he and other presidents want to host, which often necessitates the installation of tents on the South Lawn.

“For 150 years, Presidents, and many others, have wanted a beautiful Ballroom, but it never got built because nobody previously had any knowledge or experience in doing such things,” Trump posted, adding “But I do.”

Trump says U.S. and Chinese delegations will meet in London on Monday for another round of trade talks.

Trump wrote in a social media post Friday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would represent the U.S. at the talks.

He previewed the meeting on Thursday after a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but a time and location had not yet been revealed.

A Michigan imam who presided over a prayer service marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha says President Donald Trump’s new travel ban could backfire on the Republican Party.

The travel ban announced Wednesday by the White House applies to citizens of Yemen and 11 other nations.

“We saw the price that the Democratic Party had to pay for undermining the Palestinian voice. There are many people that avoided voting altogether just because of this country’s policies toward Gaza,” Imam Imran Salha told The Associated Press, referring to Trump in November becoming the first Republican presidential candidate since 2000 to win the majority-Arab city of Dearborn.

“Let’s not make the same mistake,” Salha said.

Salha spoke to AP on Friday, after leading the Eid service at the Islamic Center of Detroit, a mosque with a significant number of Yemeni American worshippers.

As transgender service members face a deadline to leave the U.S. military, hundreds are taking the financial bonus to depart voluntarily. But others say they will stay and fight.

For many, it is a wrenching decision to end a career they love, and leave units they have led or worked with for years. And they are angry they are being forced out by the Trump administration’s renewed ban on transgender troops.

Active duty service members with gender dysphoria have until Friday to identify themselves and begin to leave the military voluntarily, while the National Guard and Reserve have until July 7. Then the military will begin involuntary separations.

“They’re tired of the rollercoaster. They just want to go,” said one transgender service member, who plans to retire. ”It’s exhausting.”

For others, it’s a call to arms.

“I’m choosing to stay in and fight,” a noncommissioned officer in the Air Force said. “My service is based on merit, and I’ve earned that merit.”

The service members spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they fear reprisals.

World Pride‘s human rights conference ended Friday with a drag show featuring some of the most prominent stars from Rupaul’s Drag Race ahead of a weekend parade, rally and concerts amid anxieties over an increasingly hostile political environment for the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S.

Courtney Act, the first drag performer in the world to debut on a major label, crooned a slowed-down version of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” against a backdrop of glittering rainbow pixels. Peppermint, the first trans woman to originate a principal Broadway role, strutted in a shimmering bodysuit to Whitney Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight.”

Bob the Drag Queen, a nonbinary comedian, actor and drag performer, belted Dionne Warwick’s “I Got Love.” And TV personality and actor Mrs. Kasha Davis twirled in a sparkling black gown to Kelly Clarkson singing the words “We are all misfits living in a world on fire. Sing it for the people like us.”

Many LGBTQ+ travelers have expressed concerns or decided to skip World Pride due to anxieties about safety, border policies and a hostile political climate. Yet cross-national strategizing has still been central to the gathering as international attendees at the human rights conference echoed that they wanted to send a clear message of opposition to U.S. officials with their presence.

“This is World Pride on Trump’s doorstep,” said Yasmin Benoit, a British model and asexual activist.

A social media account run by recently terminated staffers of the U.S. aid agency that Elon Musk helped destroy had parting words for Musk Friday after his public falling-out with President Donald Trump.

“We’ll see you in the woodchipper,” the group, Friends of USAID, said on Instagram.

Ex-staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development began the account in the early days of the agency’s dismantling by the Trump administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The remark referenced Musk’s own Feb. 3 boast on X after his DOGE team helped rout USAID staffers from the agency’s headquarters and computer systems.

“Spent the weekend feeding USAID into a wood chipper,” Musk said then.

Musk and Trump turned on each other this week over the administration’s funding legislation this week. The dispute led Trump to threaten to yank billions of dollars in government contracts from Musk.

The sign-off to Friday’s Friends of USAID post noted DOGE’s hands-on role in cuts at USAID and other federal agencies.

“Sincerely, one of the 50,000 people you laid off by email.”

In the final hour of World Pride’s human rights conference, Democratic Rep. Becca Balint, of Vermont, acknowledged that GOP control of the U.S. House limits the ways that Democrats can work to protect LGBTQ+ rights amid mounting threats.

Balint emphasized the importance of working with Republicans across the aisle and with human rights groups that have sued the Trump administration.

The Trump administration has issued executive orders to recognize people as being only male or female, keep transgender girls and women out of sports competitions for females, oust transgender military troops, restrict federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19 and threatened research funding for institutions that provide the care.

All the efforts are being challenged in court, and judges have put some policies on hold.

“In this time of incredible fear and anxiety in our community, of course, it feels like we, as representatives, are not doing enough,” Balint said. "... We have to get creative about how we do this work.”

In the final event of World Pride’s human rights conference, Democratic Rep. Becca Balint, Vermont’s first woman and first openly gay person to represent the state in Congress, urged Democrats to take advantage of the confusion within the GOP amid Trump and Musk’s public fallout, especially to protect transgender rights.

“We do have an opportunity here because our colleagues don’t know who to support and they’re scared, and we must exploit that,” Balint said.

Rep. Emily Randall, who won her race for Washington’s 6th Congressional District in 2024, said the tension between Trump and Musk “is reflective of the chaos within the Republican party.”

The House Democratic Leader calls the Trump-Musk breakup feud a “welcome development” in his efforts to defeat the GOP tax breaks and spending cuts package.

“To the extent that Musk has declared the bill a ‘disgusting abomination,’ we agree,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

“The opportunity that exists right now is to kill the GOP tax scam,” he said. “We have to keep the pressure on House Republicans and Senate Republicans to do the right thing.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and 22 other Senate Democrats are calling on the Pentagon to reverse its decision to force transgender service members out of the military.

Active duty troops with gender dysphoria have until today to identify themselves and leave voluntarily, and Guard and Reserve members have until July 7.

After that, the department will begin involuntary removals.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the senators said the ban will hurt military readiness, lethality and unit cohesion.

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency.

The Justice Department’s emergency appeal on Friday to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold.

Democratic state attorneys general are seeking to block President Donald Trump’s proposal for an overhaul of U.S. elections in a case that tests the separation of powers.

The top law enforcement officials from 19 states filed a federal lawsuit after the Republican president signed the executive order in March.

The states say the order steps on states’ power to set their own election rules.

During a Friday hearing, lawyers for the states argued the changes outlined in the order could not be implemented before the next election and could cost California alone $1 billion to implement.

Lawyers for the U.S. government say the next federal election is 18 months away and the harm the states claim is speculative.

Tesla shares rose 5% in early trading on Wall Street, pushing the company’s market value back above $1 trillion.

The gain recoups only some of Thursday’s big loss, when Tesla shares fell more than 14% and the EV maker’s market value dropped by about $150 billion.

Speaker Mike Johnson is expressing confidence that the growing dispute between Trump and Musk will not harm the GOP’s prospects of passing Trump’s big tax and immigration bill.

Musk has tweeted on X that lawmakers should call lawmakers and “KILL the BILL.”

Trump is set to attend Saturday’s nights UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey – continuing his trend of largely traveling domestically to attend sport events.

Since retaking the White House in January, Trump went to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida, as well as a UFC fight in Miami and the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia.

Republican senators have inserted language into the budget bill amid the Musk v. Trump feud that would eliminate fines for gas-powered cars that fall short of fuel economy standards.

Tesla has a thriving side business selling “regulatory credits” to other automakers to make up for their shortfalls.

The credits business was widely thought vulnerable to cuts even before the feud, and Musk has downplayed its importance.

But the changes would hurt Tesla as it reels from boycotts. Credit sales jumped by a third to $595 million in the first three months of the year as total revenue slumped.

Musk is dialing back his threat to decommission a capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

The threat came as President Donald Trump and Musk argued on social media on Thursday.

Trump said he could cut government contracts given to Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. Musk responded by saying SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft.

It was unclear how serious Musk’s threat was, but several hours later — in a reply to another X user — he said he wouldn’t do it.

The Pentagon watchdog is looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s aides were asked to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter.

That’s according to two people familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The people weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither the Pentagon nor the inspector general’s office immediately responded to requests for comment.