2 Honduran children detained for nearly a year in migrant facility, ACLU says
Signage for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headquarters is seen, April 2, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(VIRGINIA) — Two Honduran immigrant children have been unlawfully detained at a youth facility in Virginia for more than 300 days, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
According to the complaint, the two siblings — a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who lawyers say both fled gang violence in Honduras — have remained in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) despite “the existence of a fully vetted and approved sponsor.”
The lawsuit alleges that the government agency, which operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has “repeatedly delayed reunification through shifting technical and immaterial objections to sponsorship paperwork.”
According to the complaint, a close family friend stepped forward to sponsor them upon their arrival in U.S. in July 2025. By October 2025, federal officials had allegedly completed a positive home study and background checks, and recorded that “no documents are pending” in the case.
But instead of releasing the children, government officials “repeatedly” reopened the sponsorship process over minor clerical details, the lawsuit alleges.
The minors are being detained at Youth For Tomorrow, a Christian-based organization that provided services to unaccompanied migrant children. The ACLU said in the complaint that the delays in processing sponsor paperwork “are part of an escalating pattern” by the Office of Refugee Resettlement “to prevent children from being released.”
The two siblings, according to the lawsuit, have “documented educational accommodation plans and require specialized educational and developmental services” that they are not receiving while in custody.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News that the Office of Refugee Resettlement does not comment on active litigation. Youth For Tomorrow did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The lawsuit comes as the average stay for unaccompanied minors in ORR custody has grown from 30 days in 2024 to 117 days in 2025 under the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
“ORR is choosing chaos and confusion for the children in its care over safety and stability,” Sophia Gregg, an attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, said in a statement. “ORR is tasked with facilitating the safe and speedy release of unaccompanied children in its care, but instead of following the law, it’s choosing to advance the Trump administration’s cruel, anti-immigrant agenda and causing irreparable harm to children in the process.”
The sun rises over Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, July 10, 2025, in Page, Ariz. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — March 2026 was a historic month for temperatures in the United States, fueled by an extraordinary and prolonged heat wave that shattered temperature records across much of the West, according to a new report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Last month not only shattered the previous March record set in 2012, but it also marked the first time any month has exceeded the long-term average by more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit.
Daily record highs were widespread and persistent, especially in the Southwest, where some locations saw over 12 record-setting days. Around one-third of the population, 130 million Americans, saw their single-warmest March day on record.
Remarkably, 10 states recorded their warmest March on record: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Several major cities in the West and Southern Plains also experienced their warmest March on record, many of them by a wide margin, including Dallas, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Phoenix, Arizona, experienced nine 100 degrees Fahrenheit or greater days in March. Previously, the city had only experienced one triple-digit day in March since records began in 1895.
Human-amplified climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment. It is also causing seasonal shifts, including milder, shorter winter seasons and spring warmth beginning earlier.
For much of the country, March was not only exceptionally warm but exceptionally dry, ranking as the driest March since 2013 across the Lower 48. However, unusually dry conditions have plagued many areas since the start of the year and beyond, with January to March 2026 also ranking as the driest on record.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report released on April 2, nearly 60% of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, an increase of about 5% from the beginning of March. The Lower 48 now has the largest extent of drought since November 2022.
Widespread, persistent drier-than-average conditions in March led to drought expansion and intensification across parts of the country.
Drought conditions worsened significantly in Nebraska last month, contributing to the state’s largest wildfire on record. The Morrill Fire scorched more than 640,000 acres. Florida is enduring its worst drought in 25 years, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, with the dry conditions contributing to a heightened risk of wildfires this spring and prompting water restrictions in parts of the state.
In the western United States, well-above-average temperatures occurred during periods of well-below-average precipitation, which has had dramatic impacts on seasonal snowpack and water resources. With mountain snowpack sharply reduced, the region’s water supplies are facing mounting challenges and wildfire risk is elevated earlier than usual.
The Colorado River provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. Major reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin remain well below average, the agency’s latest data shows, heightening concerns about water availability across the region.
Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the United States, is one of them. Water levels have dropped more than 10 feet so far this year and are forecast to continue a gradual decline through the months ahead. Despite the recent drop, the reservoir remains more than 8 feet above its record low set in April 2023. However, current projections suggest that level could be approached, or even challenged again, by late summer if dry conditions persist.
Over the next two weeks, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says there is an increased likelihood of near- to above-average precipitation across a large portion of the country, including much of the West, Midwest and South. Near- to below-average precipitation is more likely along the East Coast.
The outlook also indicates an increased probability of above-average temperatures across much of the nation, with the highest chances along the East Coast and in the South.
Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on September 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. Colin Gray is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children after his son opened fire and killed 4 at the high school on Wednesday. (Photo by Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)
(GEORGIA) — In often tearful and painful testimony, students wounded in a 2024 mass shooting at a Georgia high school took the witness stand on Tuesday in the murder trial of the alleged gunman’s father.
As the defendant, 55-year-old Colin Gray, sat just feet away listening, the students recounted the horror they endured on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, allegedly at the hands of Gray’s then 14-year-old son, Colt.
Judge Nicholas Primm, who is presiding over the case, ordered the media not to show the students’ faces during the televised trial. The defense did not cross-examine any of the students who testified.
All of the students who testified Tuesday said they were in algebra teacher Cassandra Ryan’s class when they heard a loud bang outside their classroom door.
“I remember standing up and turning my back towards the door, and that’s when I saw him, Colt. He was pointing the weapon, just aiming anywhere, I guess,” testified Melany Delira-Castaneda, who was a freshman at the time of the shooting.
The now 16-year-old girl testified that she didn’t realize she had been shot until after the gunshots subsided.
“I remember standing up and I turned around. I didn’t know I was shot, but I was. My body was telling me to hold my arm, so I was holding my arm,” Delira-Castaneda testified. “I think I was just in shock and scared.”
She said she was shot in the shoulder.
“I feel like just seeing a lot of what I saw that day, it just sticks with me, and not being able to trust certain people,” Delira-Castaneda told the court.
Prosecutors called the students to testify in an effort to show what Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith described in his opening statement as the “horrific consequences” of the alleged actions or inaction Colin Gray took with his son leading up to the shooting.
Gray is the latest parent that prosecutors in various U.S. states have attempted to hold criminally culpable for their children’s alleged deadly actions.
The father is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Gray’s son, Colt, now 16, has been charged as an adult and is awaiting a separate trial on multiple counts of felony murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
Killed in the shooting were math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53; and students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, officials said.
Angulo was also in Ryan’s class when he was shot and killed.
“This case is about this defendant and his actions – his actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that his child was going to harm others,” Smith said in his opening statement on Monday.
Prosecutors allege that despite repeatedly being warned about his son’s mental deterioration and that he was a danger to himself and others, Colin Gray gave the boy an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present and allowed him to keep the weapon propped against a wall in his bedroom. The rifle, prosecutors allege, was used in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School.
Nautica Walton, another student in Ryan’s algebra class on the day of the shooting, testified on Tuesday that when she heard a loud bang outside the classroom door, “I realized something was wrong.”
“I remember my teacher falling to the floor, and then Taylor, [a student] in front of me, I remember seeing her fall down before I turned around and saw there was somebody at the door with a weapon,” Nautica, now 16, testified.
She told the court that she got on the ground next to Melany Delira-Castaneda.
“I remember Melany, she had blood all on her arm. I remember her blood was getting on the side of me because I was lying on the side of her,” Walton testified.
Walton further testified that she was shot in the leg during the episode and recalled going in and out of consciousness.
“I remember my teacher telling me to stay awake because I was feeling really tired,” Walton said on the witness stand. “I remember Natalie [another student] lying on the floor, saying she was hit and crying with a big puddle of blood,” said Walton, adding that a classmate took off her jacket and wrapped it around her leg.
“And then I passed out after that,” she testified.
Walton also told the court that since the shooting, she has been unable to play sports and has been “very paranoid.”
“I don’t like being in front of doors at school. I don’t use the bathroom at school,” testified Walton, adding that she had nightmares for months after the shooting.
Student Taylor Jones, now 16, testified that when she realized she had been shot in the leg, she asked a classmate to hold her hand “because I was scared.”
She told the court that she remembers being on the classroom floor before she passed out and then waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she was flown to by a medical helicopter.
Jones, a one-time volleyball player on her school team, told the court that she has since undergone multiple surgeries and has been unable to play sports.
Natalie Griffith, now 16, recalled to the court looking down at her hand during the shooting and seeing a hole and blood near her wrist.
“I didn’t know this at the time, but I had another one up on my shoulder,” she testified of a second bullet wound. “I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem.”
Griffith told the court that as she was being carried out of the classroom, she saw Colt Gray on the floor being detained with his hands behind his back.
“I said a lot of curse words. I was very angry at the time because I thought they were going to have to amputate my hand,” Griffith testified. “I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids.”
Jaxxon Beaver, 16, another student in the algebra class, testified that he was also shot in the leg.
“I noticed that when I was hurt, I looked down and saw a hole in my shorts and noticed I was bleeding,” Beaver said on the stand.
Beaver further testified that he was unable to go to school for at least three months after the shooting, and eventually gave up on going back.
“Every time I went back to school, I would feel like something bad was going to happen again. I couldn’t wait and had to go home, like right after,” Beaver testified.
Ronaldo Vega, now 16, recalled to the court seeing Colt Gray at the door wearing yellow gloves and firing a rifle that had a scope.
“He shot, I don’t know how many times. I went down to duck,” Vega testified.
Vega testified that when the shooting stopped, he barricaded the classroom door with desks and chairs. He said he saw Christian Angulo curled up on the floor motionless near the door.
“A girl was screaming that he was dead,” Vega told the court.
Kersten Francilus is seen in a photo released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
(MARTIN COUNTY, Fla.) — The suspect in the deadly, apparently random stabbing of an elderly woman who was walking her dog in Florida allegedly told authorities that he “went around” the neighborhood and “found a lady and then I killed her,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The shocking, “extremely violent” attack occurred Thursday afternoon in Stuart, in the “quiet” community of Southwood, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
Several people had called 911 to report a “suspicious” man who was going door-to-door asking “where the new bank was,” Budensiek said at a press briefing Thursday, noting that there isn’t a bank in the area. The suspect — later identified as 25-year-old Kersten Francilus — reportedly appeared “out of it,” according to the affidavit.
At one house, the suspect asked for the bank and allegedly “attempted to step inside,” at which point the resident shut the door, according to the affidavit.
Shortly after those calls, people called 911 to report the stabbing, according to Budensiek. The victim was walking a small dog when she was “brutally attacked,” he said.
A good Samaritan tried to intervene but couldn’t get the assailant off the woman, the sheriff said.
A deputy who was already en route for the suspicious person arrived at the scene and saw the victim on the ground, according to Budensiek.
“Our suspect was on top of her, actually actively stabbing her,” Budensiek said.
The deputy got out of his vehicle and pulled out his gun, at which time the suspect threw the knife down, “giving up,” the sheriff said.
The deputy immediately took Francilus into custody, the sheriff said.
An off-duty deputy who had also responded rendered aid to the victim, Budensiek said. She was transported to an area hospital, where she died from “significant injuries,” the sheriff said. She had been stabbed multiple times in her upper torso, he said, calling it a “violent, violent homicide.”
The victim appeared to have 16 or 17 stab wounds, according to the affidavit, which identified her as Joyce Ellen Thompson Adams.
Francilus has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder. He refused a public defender and is being held on no bond, online court records show. ABC News’ attempts to reach members of his family for comment were unsuccessful.
After being read his Miranda Rights, Francilus allegedly admitted to the stabbing, according to the affidavit.
“He initially stated he left his residence and ‘did what I did,'” the affidavit stated. “He stated he ‘went around’ the neighborhood, and he said ‘I found a lady and then I killed her.'”
The suspect is believed to live in a nearby neighborhood with his mother, wife and child, Budensiek said. A steak knife used in the attack came from their home, according to the sheriff.
The suspect’s mother reportedly told detectives that Francilus “has not taken his medications since February,” according to the affidavit, which did not go into further detail. His mother also said she “usually stored the knives above the microwave, essentially hiding them from the suspect,” the affidavit stated.
A motive remains under investigation, according to the sheriff.
Francilus has no known criminal history or connection to the victim, Budensiek said. There was previously one call for service at his home, during which he was reported to have been “acting strange,” the sheriff said.
“We don’t know of any motive at this point. We don’t know of any nexus between the victim and the suspect,” Budensiek said. “We just simply know that we’ve had a horrendous crime that’s taken place in this neighborhood.”
