(Texas) — Animal rescue groups are stepping up to take in displaced pets amid the deadly flooding in central Texas, relocating them and keeping them safe until they can be reunited with their owners.
“When the floods occurred, we knew right away from other emergency response situations, such as the fires in Los Angeles, that we have shelters that are full of animals and what we are going to need in any event like this was to make room for displaced pets, lost pets and provide that relief for families that are already going through complete tumultuous situations to maybe have one less thing to worry about,” Marc Peralta, chief program officer for Best Friends Animal Society, said in an interview on ABC News Live.
The organization and its partners airlifted about 130 cats and dogs that were already available in shelters so there was room and time for displaced pets to be able to stay in the community, be safe and hopefully get reunited with their families, Peralta said.
At least 120 people were killed after catastrophic flooding swept through Texas in the overnight hours of the Fourth of July.
Peralta said the organization can facilitate longer stays of pets in emergency situations to allow for reunification, but at some point those pets can be put up for adoption.
“Just like any pet in a shelter, they can go up for adoption. But a lot of times if situations like this occur, we will extend wait periods just to make sure that we are giving ample amount of time because we always want them to go back home first, especially if we know they are stranded or lost,” Peralta said.
Many of the local organizations Best Friends Animal Society is working with on the ground are operating based on donations and there are wish lists available online for anyone interested in purchasing specific things needed by shelters on the ground.
If you are able to take in a pet through adoption or rescue, it will also help make room for other animals who need help because of the flooding, Peralta said.
“Just like for people, we’re just kind of scratching the surface in understanding what the actual devastation is for animals in the area is as well,” Peralta said.
(DENVER, Colo.) — Passengers on an American Airlines flight evacuated onto the runway via emergency slides after the plane aborted its takeoff on the runway in Denver on Saturday. One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
American Airlines flight 3023, which was headed to Miami, reported a “possible landing gear incident during departure,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.
Data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the plane reached a top speed of 127 knots — nearly 150 miles — on the runway before slowing down.
In air traffic control audio obtained from LiveATC.net, the pilot told the controller they were “aborting on the runway.” The controller told the pilot, “You got a lot of smoke.” A moment later, the controller said, “There was some flames, it looks like the smoke’s kind of dying down a bit.”
The FAA said passengers evacuated the plane on the runway and were taken back to the terminal by bus. Video showed passengers evacuating the aircraft on slides.
The flight was operated on a Boeing 737 Max 8. There were 173 passengers and six crew members on board, according to the airline.
Mark Tsurkis, 50, a passenger aboard the flight, told ABC News he heard “a loud boom,” as the plane was about to take off.
“I said, ‘That’s not good,'” Tsurkis said, at which point the plane began to slow down, he said, and passengers could see one of the wheels pass by.
“When the plane stopped about 30 seconds to a minute later, somebody said, ‘Smoke, fire.’ And then a lot of people, of course, started panicking,” Tsurkis said.
According to the Denver International Airport, the plane was met by first responders. The Denver Fire Department said it extinguished a fire on the plane. The airport said six people were evaluated and one was taken to the hospital. The airline said the person transported had minor injuries.
“It’s definitely not a pleasant experience, but we got lucky,” Tsurkis said. “It happened before the plane took off, so [the pilot] was able to slow down before actually going full speed or before flying.”
American Airlines said the passengers will go to Miami on a replacement plane later Saturday, while the original plane will be taken out of service and inspected.
The airline said in a statement, “We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for their experience.”
(TENNESSEE) Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been brought back to the United States where he will face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.
More than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury has indicted him for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States.
A two-count indictment, which was filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee last month and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia, 29, participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country.
The alleged conspiracy spanned nearly a decade and involved the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.
Abrego-Garcia is alleged to have participated in more than 100 such trips, according to the indictment. Among those allegedly transported were members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, sources familiar with the investigation said.
Abrego-Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy charged in the indictment.
His return to the U.S. comes after the Trump administration repeatedly said that they were unable to bring him back despite his mistaken deportation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, at a Friday afternoon press conference, thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for “agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.”
“Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country,” Bondi said.
Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges, upon the completion of his sentence he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.
“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”
The decision to pursue the indictment against Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader’s decision told ABC News. Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said.
Schrader, who spent 15 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and was most recently the chief of the criminal division, did not respond to messages from ABC News seeking comment.
In a statement to ABC News, Abrego Garcia’s attorney said that he’s going to keep fighting to ensure Abrego Garcia receives a fair trial.
“From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man’s life,” said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “We’re not just fighting for Kilmar — we’re fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us — if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution.”
In a detention memo filed Friday afternoon in court in Tennessee, federal prosecutors moved to have Abrego Garcia held in pretrial custody “because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”
Federal prosecutors, in a detention memo filed this afternoon in court in Tennessee, have moved for pre-trial detention of Abrego Garcia, writing that “…the United States will request that the defendant be held in pretrial custody because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”
“If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment for ‘each alien’ he transported,” the memo said, “Accordingly, the sentencing exposure for the defendant — given the number of undocumented aliens involved — goes well beyond the remainder of the defendant’s life.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that he is an MS-13 member.
The Justice Department’s move to criminally prosecute Abrego Garcia represents the most aggressive step yet in the administration’s efforts to gather potentially incriminating information about Abrego Garcia’s background, following a federal judge’s order requiring the government to facilitate his return to the U.S. to be afforded due process in deportation proceedings.
The Trump administration has acknowledged in court filings that Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador in March was in error, because it violated a U.S. immigration court order in 2019 that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to his native country, according to immigration court records. An immigration judge had determined that Abrego Garcia would likely face persecution there by local gangs that had allegedly terrorized him and his family.
The administration argued, however, that Abrego Garcia should not be returned to the U.S. because he is a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a claim his family and attorneys have denied. In recent weeks, Trump administration officials have been publicizing Abrego Garcia’s interactions with police over the years, despite a lack of corresponding criminal charges.
In March, Abrego Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit over his deportation. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ultimately ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that ruling on April 10.
Abrego Garcia was initially sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison but was believed to have later been transferred to a different facility in the country.
The criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April as federal authorities began scrutinizing the circumstances of a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, according to the sources. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told police they had been working construction in Missouri.
According to body camera footage of the 2022 traffic stop, the Tennessee troopers — after questioning Abrego Garcia — discussed among themselves their suspicions that Abrego Garcia might be transporting people for money because nine people were traveling without luggage, but Abrego Garcia was not ticketed or charged.
The officers ultimately allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with just a warning about an expired driver’s license, according to a report about the stop released last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Asked what circumstances have changed since Abrego Garcia was not taken in custody during that traffic stop in Tennessee, Bondi replied, “What has changed is Donald Trump is now president of the United States, and our borders are again secure, and thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia — this investigation continued with actually amazing police work, and we were able to track this case and stop this international smuggling ring from continuing.”
Asked by ABC News’ Pierre Thomas asked whether this should be seen as resolving the separate civil case in Maryland in which a federal judge ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “There’s a big difference between what the state of play was before the indictment and after the indictment. And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because an arrest warrant which was presented to the government and in El Salvador. So there’s, there’s a big difference there as far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot. I would think so, but we don’t know about this. He just landed today.”
As ABC News first reported last month, the Justice Department had been quietly investigating the Tenessee traffic stop. As part of the probe, federal agents in late April visited a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama to question Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon who was the registered owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when stopped on Interstate 40 east of Nashville, sources previously told ABC News. Hernandez-Reyes was not present at the traffic stop.
Hernandez-Reyes, 38, is currently serving a 30-month sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a prior felony conviction for illegal transportation of aliens.
After being granted limited immunity, Hernandez-Reyes allegedly told investigators that he previously operated a “taxi service” based in Baltimore. He claimed to have met Abrego Garcia around 2015 and claimed to have hired him on multiple occasions to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to various locations in the United States, sources told ABC News.
When details of the Tennessee traffic stop were first publicized, Abrego Garcia’s wife said her husband sometimes transported groups of fellow construction workers between job sites.
“Unfortunately, Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means he cannot respond to the claims,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura said in mid-April.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who flew to El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia shortly after his deportation, said Friday that the Trump administration had “relented” regarding his return.
“After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X. “This has never been about the man — it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager in 2012, according to court records. He had been living in Maryland for the past 13 years, and married Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, in 2019. The couple has one child together.
ABC News’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.
Arthur Gurmankin/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Levels of the harmful toxin microcystin have been detected in Lake Erie weeks earlier than usual, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Microcystin is a group of toxins produced by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They are the most common cyanobacterial toxins and can be found inside algal cells. They can also accumulate in common marine life, such as zooplankton, mussels, and fish.
At certain levels, microcystin toxins produced by certain types of freshwater blue-green algae can pose health risks to people and pets, NOAA said in a release on Friday. They primarily affect the liver but can impact the kidneys and reproductive systems as well, according to the EPA.
The presence of microcystin may also prompt additional treatment at public drinking water systems, according to NOAA.
Microcystin is detected every year at Lake Erie, but the early measurements of the toxin could impact recreation and drinking water as the summer months continue, according to NOAA.
Water samples taken from western Lake Erie on April 28 by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL), is the earliest the toxin has been detected in Lake Erie.
The levels at which the toxin was detected — levels of 0.12 parts per billion of microcystin — are not high enough to trigger treatment measures at nearby drinking water facilities or prompt warnings against swimming or taking pets into the lake, said Reagan Errera, a research ecologist at GLERL in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
However, the early detection could pose problems later in the summer when concentrations are anticipated to rise to above advisory levels for drinking water — at 1.6 parts per billion — and recreation, at 8 parts per billion, according to NOAA.
Since 2008, toxin levels have exceeded advisory levels for drinking water and recreation in some areas of Lake Erie. Over the last seven years, researchers have seen the toxic period of the harmful algal bloom starting 10 days earlier, Errera said.
The lab begins routine monthly testing of Lake Erie in late April and increases the sampling frequency to weekly in June, according to NOAA. The sampling continues through October.
There are eight sites within that have historically seen harmful algal blooms, according to NOAA. The GLERL also tests five sites bi-weekly in Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron.
The testing involves taking samples by boat and testing for 19 water quality parameters, which include cyanobacteria toxins, according to NOAA.
“Early detection of toxins provides drinking water facilities, water managers, and the public more time to make informed decisions regarding the health risk associated with harmful algal bloom events,” Errera said.
It is unclear whether the toxin originated in Lake Erie or the nearby Maumee River, which runs from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie, according to NOAA.
