5 people dead in massive car crash in Austin, driver charged
ABC News
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A man is facing charges after five people were killed and 11 were hospitalized in a collision involving 17 vehicles, including a semi-truck, in Austin, Texas, authorities said.
Solomun Weldekeal Araya, 37, has been charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault, according to Austin police.
The accident unfolded at approximately 11:23 p.m. on Interstate 35 southbound, according to Capt. Krista Stedman, public information officer for Austin-Travis County EMS. Crews arrived on scene to find multiple patients pinned in their cars, officials said.
Five people died at the scene: three adults, one child and one infant, authorities said. Eleven others were taken to hospitals.
“This incident was incredibly chaotic, and it was spread out over about a tenth of a mile,” Stedman said. “We were able to get all the critical patients off the scene within about 40 minutes and, considering how complex the scene was, that’s pretty impressive.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s launched a safety investigation.
(NEW YORK) — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil called himself a “political prisoner” in a new letter dictated from the Louisiana detention center where he remains held following his arrest on Columbia University’s campus.
“I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law,” Khalil stated in the letter, which was dictated over the phone to his family and obtained by ABC News from his legal team on Tuesday.
Khalil, a leader of the encampment protests at Columbia last spring, was detained on March 8. He was taken from his student apartment building to 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to his legal team.
Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas — a claim his legal team has rejected.
In his letter, Khalil recounted the night of his arrest, which occurred while he returned to his residence on Columbia’s campus with his wife, Noor Abdalla, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
“Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car,” he stated. “At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side.”
Khalil said he did not know why he was arrested or he faced “immediate deportation.” He claimed the Trump administration is “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he stated.
Khalil said his detention “is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation.”
“Students have long been at the forefront of change — leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa,” he stated. “Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.”
He called on students, as well as advocates and elected officials, to continue to “defend the right to protest” in support of Palestinians.
“At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” he stated.
In a recent court filing, Khalil’s attorneys ask for his return to New York from Louisiana, where he is being held pending an appearance in front of an immigration judge later this month.
His attorneys had previously asked for his immediate release in a separate filing.
Khalil said he hopes to be able to see the birth of his child, stating in his letter, “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
Khalil’s lawyers said that during his detainment, plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said his student visa had been revoked — even though Khalil is in the U.S. on a green card. He has not been charged with a crime.
A federal judge has blocked Khalil’s removal from the U.S. while weighing a petition challenging his arrest.
He is set to appear before an immigration judge on March 27.
Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Fifteen minutes before a scheduled hearing in wrongful deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration said in their daily status report to the court that it is “prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s presence in the United States in accordance with those processes if he presents at a port of entry.”
“I have been authorized to represent that DHS is prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s presence in the United states in accordance with those processes if he presents at a port of entry,” said Joseph Mazarra, the Acting General Counsel for DHS.
However, Mazarra said, since Abrego Garcia is “being held in the sovereign, domestic custody” of El Salvador, DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract him “from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
If Abrego Garcia does present at a port of entry, he would become subject to detention by DHS, due to his alleged membership in the criminal gang MS-13, said Mazarra.
The development came a day after a highly anticipated Oval Office meeting in which the president of El Salvador said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
The federal judge who ordered his return is scheduled to hear from Trump administration attorneys at a court hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Kilmar 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 that country.
Trump administration officials say Abrego Garcia, who escaped political violence in El Salvador 2011, is a member of the criminal gang MS-13, but to date they have provided little evidence of that assertion in court.
He is being held in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, along with hundreds of other alleged migrant gang members, under an arrangement in which the Trump administration is paying El Salvador $6 million to house migrants deported from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an Oval Office meeting Monday with President Trump and the visiting El Salvador president, said that Abrego Garcia’s return is “up to El Salvador.”
“If El Salvador … wanted to return him, we would facilitate it,” she said.
Asked by reporters about Abrego Garcia, President Bukele responded, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
In a motion filed Tuesday in advance of the hearing, lawyers for Abrego Garcia argued that the Trump administration has not taken any steps to comply with the orders to facilitate his release.
“There is no evidence that anyone has requested the release of Abrego Garcia,” they wrote in the filing.
The attorneys also took issue with the government’s interpretation of the word “facilitate,” which the administration has argued in court filings is limited to removing any domestic obstacles that would impede the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Interpreting the term in that manner, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued, would render “null” the Supreme Court’s order that the government facilitate his release.
“To give any meaning to the Supreme Court’s order, the Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia. To date, the Government has not done so,” they wrote in their motion.
After U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return, the Supreme Court last week unanimously ruled that Judge Xinis “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
“The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” the Supreme Court wrote, which the Trump administration has interpreted as prohibiting the district court from ordering the executive branch to take any action that would violate the separation of powers.
Judge Xinis subsequently amended her ruling to remove the word “effectuate,” leaving the order to “facilitate.”
In an interview Monday evening with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, an attorney for Abrego Garcia said he hopes Tuesday’s hearing “lights a fire under the government to comply with the Supreme Court’s order” to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release.
“What we’re asking [of Trump] is exactly what the Supreme Court told him,” attorney Benjamin Osorio said. “I personally have worked with DHS before to facilitate the return of several other clients who were deported and then won their cases at circuit court levels or at the Supreme Court, and ICE facilitated their return.”
“So we’re not asking anybody to do anything illegal,” Osorio said. “We’re asking them to follow the law.”
“It feels a little bit like the Spider-Man meme where everybody’s pointing at everybody else,” Osorio said of Bukele’s claim that he doesn’t have the power to return Garcia. “But at the same time, I mean, we are renting space from the Salvadorans. We are paying them to house these individuals, so we could stop payment and allow them to be returned to us.”
Asked if he is confident that Abrego Garcia will be returned, Osorio said he was concerned but hopeful.
“I’m worried about the rule of law, I’m worried about our Constitution, I’m worrying about due process,” he said. “So at this point, I am optimistic to see what happens in the federal court hearing.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott during an ICE raid in Virginia on March 4, 2025. (ABC News)
(RICHMOND, VA) — Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bringing “consequences” during raids in Virginia on Tuesday.
“There is consequences,” said Noem, who was present during the pre-operation debrief. The raids were assisted by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott covered the raids at the scene. The second operation saw agents detain a man who officials said had been convicted of sexual battery. The man, they said, had been deported twice and re-entered the country illegally.
Two minors and an uncle were also present in the raided residence, officials said. Agents said the uncle is undocumented and told him to turn himself into immigration authorities in two days.
Asked what would happen to the two minors, Noem told ABC News, “We don’t know what other family members they have, that’s why he has two days to go locate them and make sure these kids are with someone in their family that they believe will keep them safe and set a better example for them.”
Pushed on the likelihood of the family being separated, Noem said there are “consequences,” adding, “And we are giving him time to leave these children with someone else.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
