A shooting leaves two people dead
Deportation of a Mexican immigrant to the U.S.: Sen. Chris Van Hollen in the CECOT mega-prison
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia yesterday. Abrego is from Maryland and he was deported to El Salvador last month. He is being held in a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration is sending people deported from the U.S. The White House insists Abrego Garcia will not return to the U.S. despite a federal judge’s order to facilitate his return.
On the other side, Abrego Garcia has legal status in the U.S.; his wife is an American citizen and has pleaded for his return; stories have noted that he is the father to a son on the autism spectrum; that he has no criminal record and that his family sent him to the United States in the first place as a teenager because a gang in El Salvador (not MS-13) was trying to coerce him to join.
The situation galvanized Van Hollen to personally campaign for Abrego, who is currently being held in a notorious mega-prison known as CECOT.
The goal of this mission is to let the government of El Salvadoran know that we are going to keep trying to get Abrego out of there, until he’s back with his family,” Van Hollen said. We are going to keep fighting, because this is not justice at all.
Van Hollen said while he wanted to see Abrego Garcia in person and report back to his family, Ulloa told him he would have needed to make earlier arrangements to visit the facility.
She accused Van Hollen of possibly utilizing taxpayer dollars to fund his trip, and slammed Democrats for supporting Abrego’s release instead of doing more to improve border security.
The father of a girl who was murdered by a fugitive from El Salvadoran was at the press briefing with Leavitt. Morin also spoke critically of Van Hollen.
My taxpayer money would be used to send a senator from Maryland, who didn’t acknowledge or even acknowledge my daughter’s death, to El Salvador to bring back someone who wasn’t even a person, so that my children wouldn’t have to live without a mother.
Van Hollen’s office released a statement about the conviction in the case on Monday, thanking those who made the verdict possible. The country can improve public safety and border security while also supporting our immigrant communities, and respecting the rights of individuals who are here legally, he said.
Rep. Riley Moore and Rep. Jason Smith: Bringing “homegrown criminals to the U.S.” after a congressional hearing on Trump’s deportation agenda
Two Republicans, West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore and Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, posted photos to social media of themselves touring CECOT on Tuesday. They each spoke highly of Trump’s deportation agenda, with Moore saying he leaves “even more determined” to support the president’s efforts.
In two separate letters this week, Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Delia Ramirez of Illinois, asked the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., to authorize a Congressional Member Delegation to visit CECOT.
Garcia and Frost wrote that a “Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT.”
“In addition, congressional oversight is warranted following President Trump’s recent remarks in which he expressed a desire to send ‘homegrown criminals’ — including U.S. citizens — to this facility,” they said, adding that they would gladly include Republicans on their trip and are prepared to leave as soon as possible.
That prompted Trump to lash out against Powell on Thursday, saying the Fed chairman’s “termination cannot come fast enough.” Powell, backed by Supreme Court precedent, insists he can’t be fired because he disagrees with the president.
If the Justice Department didn’t pursue contempt charges, he would recommend appointing an outside prosecutor to do so. The judge presiding over the specific Abrego Garcia case, Paula Xinis, said she’s “gotten nothing” from the administration, which she ordered to show evidence of what it’s doing to bring the man back. An appeals court has unanimously denied the government’s request for a stay of the jury’s ruling and ordering sworn testimony from government officials about what they have done to return Abrego Garcia to the US.
Which one of them winds up weighing out? At the end of the day, a true constitutional crisis would come if the Trump administration exhausts its appeals and defies the Supreme Court, if it rules against the administration. Maybe that would come if Trump follows through on his musings about sending “homegrown” criminals, in other words, U.S. citizens, to El Salvador.
The Supreme Court stated that the administration had to facilitate the return of the man, but that the courts should pay attention to the Executive Branch’s conduct of foreign affairs.
“No court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during that meeting in the Oval Office with Bukele. “I don’t understand what the confusion is. This person is a citizen of El Paso. He was returned to his country after being in the United States illegally.
News about President Trump and the struggle over his story about the Maryland man who was deported to El salvador dominated the week. There was continued concern about Trump’s tariffs with the Federal Reserve Chair saying they’re likely to lead to higher prices, and there was also tension between the scientific establishment and Robert Kennedy Jr., who made some huge statements during his first news conference as health and human services
President Trump met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday. The president’s inner circle and the Salvadoran president played a faux blame game on the deported Maryland man.
The same federal judge, who has now bucked the Trump administration over its deportation policies multiple times, James Boasberg, this week said there was “probable cause” for contempt charges against the administration. He wants to hear more about why Trump’s team ignored his orders, until Wednesday, when they’ll give him some answers.
Is there other environmental causes, and why does Trump’s tariffs appear more likely to lead to higher inflation? An analysis by Robert F. Kennedy, C. S. McCann, J. P. Powell, and Robert F
Is it possible that there are other environmental causes besides vaccines? Kennedy’s theory is that. But science is about letting evidence dictate answers, not saying what’s going to happen.
There’s an irony in RFK Jr. claiming that “ideology” is contributing to the CDC’s conclusions when he is saying definitively that “environmental exposures” is “where we’re going to find the answer” and appointed someone who promoted the discredited vaccine link to autism to lead HHS’ effort to identify a cause.
“I think we need to move away from this ideology that this diagnosis is an artifact of better diagnoses and better recognition, rather than being constant increases,” Kennedy said. He said that doctors and therapists were not missing all the cases in the past. The epidemic is happening. External factors, environmental exposures, that’s where we’re going to find the answer.”
He’s also contradicting his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said this week that part of the increase in the number of children found to have autism is likely because of increased diagnoses and better diagnostic tools.
So, for now, he said, the Fed will wait and watch. With how quickly Trump has been changing his mind, or, as he says, being “flexible,” it could be waiting and watching for a while.
The head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said this week that Trump’s tariffs were larger than expected and that they’re “highly likely” to lead to higher inflation.
Source: 5 takeaways from the week: Nearing a constitutional crisis?
A gang member in El Salvador and a teen killed by a gunman opened fire in the Up First room of Florida State University
“Evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” she said in a ruling.
The immigration court ordered him back to El Salvador in order to face death or danger. The evidence that he was a gang member is “flimsy”, according to the judge.
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Two people were killed and six people were hospitalized when a man opened fire at Florida State University. Phoenix Ikner is the son of a Leon County deputy. Sheriff Walter McNeil says he had access to his mother’s gun in the shooting.
Music, Entertainment, and News from Sudan’s Civil War: “Sinners” by David Lammy, Michael B. Jordan, Jon Hamm, Charlotte Chocolate Drops and NPR Music
The civil war in Sudan has entered its third year. Since the fighting began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in the capital, Khartoum, tens of thousands have lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from famine because of the country’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations. Foreign ministers from 20 countries met in London on Tuesday to restart peace talks. The U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated at the conference that a lot of people have given up on Sudan. That is not correct. We simply cannot look away.” Check out these photos documenting the crisis.
Michael B. Jordan is in a movie called “Sinners” which tells the story of twin brothers who come to their hometown to set up a juke joint. They are warned by a spiritual healer about people who make music so true that it brings spirits and pierces the veil between life and death. Click here to check out the trailer.
📺 TV: A very wealthy guy, played by Jon Hamm, reacts to becoming less rich by turning to a life of crime in Your Friends and Neighbors. There are documentary, comedy and other things on this week.
In a country where artificial insemination is the norm, and sex is not allowed, there are books about Vanishing World. Check out these four other notable new reads from this week.
🎵 Music: At midnight, new albums by one-third of boygenius, two-thirds of Carolina Chocolate Drops, and one-quarter of TV on the Radio were released. Listen to the best songs from each album on NPR Music’s curated playlist.
Source: FSU shooting leaves two dead. And, Trump criticizes Fed chairman over interest rates
A Taste of Ice Cream with Pooja Bavishi’s Mission: A New Perspective on “Flavoring South Asian Cuisine with Ice Cream”
🍦 Food: Pooja Bavishi is on a mission to change how ice cream is perceived in the U.S. with her South Asian-inspired treats and cookbook, Malai. Morning Edition went to a D.C. shop to sample ice cream and discuss turning BaviShi’s passions into a career.
