Category: National

(WINN PARISH, La.) — A Mexican migrant died last week in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an agency notification sent to lawmakers, becoming the 47th person to die in ICE detention during the second Trump administration.

Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, died on April 11 at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana.

In the notification, ICE said that Cabrera was found unresponsive and was transported to a local medical center.

“Despite life-saving efforts, at approximately 8:51 a.m., an onsite physician at WPMC pronounced Cabrera deceased,” the agency said.

Clemente is the 15th Mexican national to die in ICE custody since the administration began its immigration crackdown in 2025.

Last month, Mexican diplomat Vanessa Calva Ruiz called the recent deaths part of “an alarming, unacceptable trend” since the administration took office.

“These deaths reveal systemic failures, operational deficiencies, and possible negligence,” she said in Los Angeles.

ICE said that Clemente had prior convictions for disorderly conduct, drug possession, and probation violation, as well as an arrest for domestic violence. ABC News could not independently confirm these claims.

The increase in ICE deaths has coincided with an unprecedented rise in federal immigration detention. The number of people being held recently climbed to a record 70,000, the highest level in the agency’s 23-year history.

According to an ABC News analysis of ICE data, the first 14 months of the current term have been the deadliest period at federal detention centers since the COVID-19 pandemic. ABC News’ analysis found the current death rate is 11 per 100,000 admissions, compared to 7 per 100,000 last year and just 1 per 100,000 in 2022.

In a previous statement, an ICE spokesperson said, “Consistent with data over the last decade, death rates in custody are 0.009% of the detained population. As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens — including providing access to proper medical care. For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”

“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care,” the statement said. 

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(WASHINGTON) — A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his stepsister during a family cruise vacation, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

Anna Kepner, 18, died on the Carnival Cruise ship Horizon in November while the ship was in international waters and heading to Miami, prosecutors said.

The DOJ alleged the stepbrother “sexually assaulted and intentionally killed” Kepner. The Florida high school senior died from “mechanical asphyxiation,” officials said. 

The boy was initially charged as a juvenile, prosecutors said. He’s now been indicted as an adult by a federal grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse.

Kepner’s family said in a statement last year that the 18-year-old “loved being around people” and “drew you in with her smile and the way she carried herself.”

She was set to graduate from high school this May and was interested in joining the military, her family said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge on Monday threw out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal after Trump sued the paper last July for its reporting on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book.

In his order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that Trump failed to prove that the Wall Street Journal knowingly published false information in the paper’s July article on an alleged letter from Trump that was included in Epstein’s 50th birthday book in 2003.

“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that Defendants published the Article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed,” the order said.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that Trump could attempt to refile the case by April 27.

In court filings, Trump’s lawyers had argued that the article and surrounding coverage were a “deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation” and subject the president to “public hatred and ridicule.”

In a 17-page ruling, Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that President Trump came “nowhere close” to the legal standard to prove that the Wall Street Journal acted with malice when it published its reporting about the birthday letter.

Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell told the Justice Department’s Todd Blanche last year that Epstein had asked her to coordinate contributions to a book celebrating his 50th birthday, but said she could not recall if President Trump, then a private citizen, was among those who responded.

Trump filed the suit by arguing that the Journal “acted with serious doubts about the truth of their reporting” because the president had claimed the letter was fake. However, Judge Gayles concluded that the reporters “attempted to investigate” the letter and did not act recklessly just because Trump denied its authenticity.

“To establish actual malice, ‘a plaintiff must show the defendant deliberately avoided investigating the veracity of the statement in order to evade learning the truth,'” the ruling said. “The Complaint comes nowhere close to this standard. Quite the opposite.”

The White House has continued to deny the authenticity of the letter after it was released by the House Oversight Committee in September.

Judge Gayles reached his conclusion without having to make a factual determination about the authenticity of the letter.

“Because the Court finds that the Complaint fails to adequately allege actual malice, it declines to address these issues at this juncture. Moreover, whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation,” he wrote.

Trump filed the defamation lawsuit in July against the Wall Street Journal, its parent company Dow Jones, its owner Rupert Murdoch, and the reporters who filed the story.

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(NEW YORK) — Police shot and killed a knife-wielding man on a subway platform at Grand Central Station in New York City on Saturday after he stabbed at least two people, according to the NYPD.

Officers were called to the scene shortly after 9:30 this morning.

Police said the man had been acting erratically on the train and slashed at least two people on the 4/5/6 platform. The slashing wounds are severe but the victims are stable in the hospital.

The suspect refused repeated commands to drop what police described as a machete before an officer opened fire, killing him, according to the NYPD.

There is no connection to terrorism, police said.

The identity of the knife-wielding suspect was not immediately released.

The NYPD will hold a news conference at the scene.

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(NEW YORK) — NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The four-person crew completed a 695,081 -mile, 10-day journey around the moon, also known as a lunar fly-by.

A “textbook” splashdown took place at 8:07 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10.

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(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) — A man has been arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the company said.

No one was hurt, according to the San Francisco Police Department and OpenAI.

The incident unfolded around 4 a.m. Friday when someone “threw an incendiary destructive device” at the house, which sparked a fire on an exterior gate, police said.

The suspect fled on foot, but police said his description was dispatched to officers.

Around 5 a.m., officers responded to OpenAI’s headquarters where a man was allegedly threatening to burn down a building, and they “recognized the male to be the same suspect from the earlier incident,” police said.

The 20-year-old suspect was arrested and charges are pending, police said.

The company said the situation is under control and there is no immediate threat to its offices.

“We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe,” OpenAI said in a statement. “We’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”

The SFPD’s Special Investigations and Arson Units are leading the investigation, the company said. The FBI said it’s aware of the incident and is working with San Francisco police.

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(WASHINGTON) — Across three hours of oral arguments on Friday, a panel of judges appeared skeptical of a legal challenge to the 10% global tariff imposed by President Donald Trump after the Supreme Court struck down his first round of tariffs earlier this year. 

The lengthy hearing centered on whether a 1974 law gives President Trump the power to impose the tariffs for 150 days without approval from Congress, based on the United States’ trade deficit. 

The suit was brought by 24 states as well as the toy company behind Care Bears and Lincoln Logs, and a spice importer. 

Brian Marshall, arguing for the plaintiffs, told the panel of three judges on the Court of International Trade that the Trump administration is misusing the law that allowed tariffs to account for a “balance of payments deficit” — which he said experts unanimously believe is distinct from a “trade deficit.” 

Judge Timothy C. Stanceu repeatedly pushed back on that claim, remarking that a “balance of payments deficit” could be created by a trade imbalance. 

“In other words, a fundamental international payments problem cannot be something where the United States has to pay out a lot of money. It can also be something where there is an imbalance created by large trade surpluses in which case they wanted to let more imports in,” Judge Stanceu said. 

The judges also appeared skeptical that the states suing the Trump administration had the legal standing to bring the case, though they appeared more receptive to the two small businesses that also challenged the tariffs: Basic Fun, a toy company, and Burlap and Barrel, which sells single-origin kitchen spices. 

“I think there’s a distinction, for example, between some of the private party plaintiffs where they said, ‘We know we have X number of containers that are coming in within a certain period of time.’ I’m not sure that I see the same degree of clarity with regard to the state plaintiffs other than we buy stuff,” said Chief Judge Mark A. Barnett. 

However, the judges also appeared to push back on some of the arguments from the Trump administration, including the claim that earlier litigation related to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which the Supreme Court concluded does not give the president the right to impose tariffs — suggested that the 1974 law now in question gives Trump that power. 

“This case has nothing like that. This case has a statute that expressly allows the imposition of tariffs or quotas. So we’re in a whole different universe now,” said Stanceu. “This one turns on balance of payments deficits, a term that was not involved in the IEEPA case.” 

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate urged the court to affirm that the 1970s law gives Trump temporary tariff power, arguing Congress was clear in giving presidents broad latitude to address the deficits in question. 

“The fundamental problem that exists today also existed in 1971, and that was the problem that Congress was trying to give presidents beyond President Nixon, the discretion to address by identifying balance of payments problems,” Shumate said. 

The court did not signal when or how they might rule, though a decision is expected sometime in the coming months. Regardless of the ruling, tariffs are set to expire in July when the 150-day window expires. 

According to the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, Trump’s tariffs — including the broad Section 122 tariffs, as well as metal and pharmaceutical tariffs imposed under different authorities — are estimated to cost every household between $760 and $940 if the Section 122 tariffs expire within 150 days. If Congress were to extend the tariffs, the price impact could be between $1,200 and $1,500 for each household. 

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(ONTARIO, Calif.) — A man is facing federal charges for allegedly purposely setting the fire that destroyed a massive warehouse in Southern California, prosecutors said.

Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, is charged with arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and used in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce, the Department of Justice said on Friday.

On April 7, Abdulkarim allegedly took video of himself setting fire to paper goods in the Ontario, California, distribution center, prosecutors said.

Abdulkarim allegedly said in the video, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to [expletive] live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this [expletive],” the DOJ said in a statement.

The massive blaze destroyed the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and caused about $500 million in damage, prosecutors said. No one was injured, the Ontario Fire Department said.

In texts and phone calls, Abdulkarim allegedly said, “I just cost these [expletive] billions,” and, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live. … Didn’t see the shareholders picking up a shift,” according to prosecutors.

The suspect also allegedly posted videos on social media of him starting the fire, prosecutors said.

Abdulkarim, of Highland, California, was arrested on Tuesday on state charges and is expected to be arraigned in state court on Friday, prosecutors said.

Attorney information for Abdulkarim was not immediately available.

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