1-year-old girl dies after being left in hot car for 9 hours; dad arrested for murder
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office
(MADISONVILLVE, La.) — A Louisiana dad has been arrested for second-degree murder after he allegedly left his 1-year-old daughter in a hot car for over nine hours, authorities said.
The incident unfolded after Joseph Boatman “consumed multiple alcoholic beverages” and then went to pick up his 21-month-old daughter from a relative’s house shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Boatman, 32, allegedly strapped his daughter into her car seat, went inside the Madisonville home and didn’t return to the car, the sheriff’s office said.
More than nine hours later, deputies were sent to the house after a family member found the toddler unresponsive in the car, authorities said.
The temperature in Madisonville climbed to 95 degrees on Sunday; the heat index — what temperature it feels like — reached 105 degrees.
“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement. “When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.”
The girl is the fifth child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars every year in the U.S. About 88% of them are 3 years old or younger, KidsAndCars.org said.
Click here for hot car safety tips to keep in mind this summer.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Boston Thursday will consider pumping the brakes on a controversial Trump administration policy of removing migrants to countries where they have no prior connection without allowing them to raise concerns about their safety.
A group of noncitizens with final removal orders filed a federal lawsuit challenging the policy last month, arguing that being removed to countries like El Salvador, Honduras or Panama — despite having no connection to those countries — risks their safety and violates their rights.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee who temporarily blocked the policy last month, will consider extending his order and certifying a class of noncitizens who would be protected from removal to a so-called third country.
“The need for preliminary injunctive relief in this case is vital,” lawyers representing the men argued in a recent court filing. “Indeed, it may be the difference between safety and torture, life and death, for many noncitizens, including ones who have been living and working in this country for decades.”
The hearing also comes as the Trump administration faces new allegations that they violated Judge Murphy’s order by removing more than a dozen migrants to El Salvador last month despite the judge’s order barring such transfers.
The plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit argue that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy results in the removal of migrants to third countries without providing them a chance to raise concerns about potentially being persecuted, tortured, or killed. In one instance, they allege that the Trump administration removed a Guatemalan man to Mexico without giving him the chance to raise concerns that he was previously raped there and now fears prosecution in that country.
“Defendants have resorted to violating noncitizens’ clear statutory rights to apply for protection from removal to countries where they face persecution or torture,” the lawyers wrote.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice have argued that Judge Murphy lacks the jurisdiction to intervene in DHS’ policies after a final order of removal has been issued by an immigration judge.
They have also argued that a preliminary injunction is no longer necessary because DHS implemented a new policy of getting “diplomatic assurances that aliens removed from the United States will not be persecuted or tortured,” or screening noncitizens for their eligibility for protections under the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture.
“As this Court indicated during the hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion, Defendants are entitled to issue guidance to satisfy any potential due process concerns. Defendants have now done so,” they argued.
But lawyers for the men who brought the lawsuit have argued that those measures are “woefully inadequate” and pointed to two recent examples where they allege that DHS potentially violated the court’s temporary order.
Two days after Judge Murphy blocked the deportations, the Trump administration announced that it had removed 17 alleged members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison. According to the plaintiffs, at least two of the men on those flights had final orders of removal to Venezuela and were never given the right to challenge their removal to El Salvador.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyers, one of those men is Maiker Espinoza Escalona, who entered the United States last year with his partner Yorely Bernal Inciarte and their one-year-old baby.
After the three turned themselves in to immigration authorities, they were separated, their family told ABC News. Inciarte has been detained at a detention center in El Paso, Texas, their baby has been in government custody, and Escalona is detained at CECOT in El Salvador, according to Inciarte’s mother.
The Trump administration alleged that Escalona is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, an accusation his family denies.
“They are liars,” said Inciarte’s mother Raida of the Trump administration. “I cannot believe that half of Venezuela is Tren de Aragua. That can’t be.”
“For them to be sent [to El Salvador] you have to investigate and prove they are what they are being accused of,” Raida said. “We’re distraught, I don’t wish this on anyone.”
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Radar screens at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport went black again early Friday morning.
The outage happened at 3:55 a.m. and lasted about 90 seconds, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Air traffic controllers could be heard telling a FedEx plane that their screens went dark and then asking the aircraft to tell their company to put pressure on to get the problem fixed.
In another transmission, a controller told an arriving private jet that the airport just had a brief radar outage and to stay at or above 3,000 feet in case the controllers couldn’t get in touch during the aircraft’s descent.
The FAA called it a “telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C,” which is the facility that covers the airspace around Newark.
Last week, an outage at Newark caused ATC computer screens to go dark for roughly 60 to 90 seconds and prevented controllers from talking to aircraft during that time, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident. As a result, the FAA briefly halted all departures to the airport.
Following the outage, several controllers went on medical leave, calling the experience a traumatic event. The controllers are entitled to at least 45 days away from the job and must be evaluated by a doctor before they can return to work.
The facility in Philadelphia which covers Newark was already short on air traffic controllers.
This increased shortage sparked massive delays and cancellations at Newark over the last two weeks.
On Thursday, the Department of Transportation announced plans for a new, “state-of-the-art” air traffic control system to replace the “antiquated” system, saying it will improve safety and cut back on delays.
Changes include swapping out old telecommunications for “new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies”; “installing new modern hardware and software”; replacing 618 old radars; and building six new air traffic control centers and replacing towers, the Transportation Department said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he hopes to have the system built in the next three to four years.
Duffy didn’t ballpark a price tag, simply saying it will cost “billions.” Duffy said he will ask for the full amount up-front from Congress, which has previously signaled support over calls for the modernization of ATC systems.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil landed at Newark Airport on Saturday, one day after a federal judge ordered his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
Despite being held in detention for over three months, Khalil vowed to continue advocating for Palestinian rights.
“Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,” he said.
Khalil also thanked those who have supported him during his months-long detention.
“Thank you so much for everything, not only for today, just for every day. Your words of support, your messages, have kept me going,” Khalil said.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since he was arrested by ICE agents in New York City in March. His son was born while he was in custody.
The ruling came at the same time an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, denied Khalil’s request for asylum and ordered him to remain detained — but U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s order supersedes that.
When asked Saturday what his message to the Trump administration was, Khalil answered, “The fact that all these attempts to suppress pro-Palestine voices have failed now — My existence is a message. The Palestinian existence is a message to this administration.”
“Whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone on this land, you’re not illegal,” he said. “That doesn’t make you less of a human. And this is what the administration is trying to do to dehumanize me, to dehumanize the immigrants, to dehumanize anyone who actually does not agree with what the administration is doing.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez welcomed Khalil home to New York, at a press conference Saturday.
“Mahmoud Khalil was imprisoned for 104 days by this administration, by the Trump administration, with no grounds and for political reasons, because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights. He has been accused baselessly of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The Trump administration knows that they are waging a losing legal battle,” she said. “They are violating the law, and they know that they are violating the law, and they are trying to use these one-off examples to intimidate everyone else from not going to school, from not using their speech, et cetera. And so we hope we’ve seen that a judge has tossed out their actions, not just once, but twice, and we hope to continue to advocate for the administration to follow the law, frankly.”
Trump administration officials have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas — a claim his legal team has disputed. A memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Khalil’s presence in the U.S. “would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
The decision to release Khalil was sharply criticized by the administration.
“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement posted online. “On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released.”
