(NEW YORK) — U.S. immigration authorities in 2024 removed the largest number of people in the country illegally in a decade, according to a new report.
In fiscal year 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 271,484 noncitizens — the highest number since 2014, according to the agency’s year-end report, released Thursday.
According to the report, of those removed from the country:
88,763 had charges or convictions for criminal activity;
3,706 were known or suspected gang members;
237 were known or suspected terrorists; and eight were human rights violators
The deportation numbers showed a 90% increase from the past two fiscal years, according to ICE data.
The 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The numbers come as President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policy and its handling of the southwest border. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to carry out “mass deportations” of people living in the country illegally.
In the last fiscal year, ICE also issued 149,764 immigration detainers for noncitizens with criminal histories — an increase of 19.5% from last fiscal year, when it issued 125,358 detainers.
A detainer is a request from ICE to state and local officials running jails and prisons to hold a noncitizen with removal orders.
Detainers will become a big part of how the incoming Trump administration will seek to deport people from the country, but the challenge is some cities and states don’t recognize the detainers, thus making the jurisdiction a “sanctuary” city or state.
ICE focused its efforts in 2024 on violent offenders, according to the report.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which falls under ICE, conducted 32,608 criminal arrests, seized over 1.6 million pounds of narcotics, identified and/or assisted 1,783 victims of child exploitation, and assisted 818 victims of human trafficking, according to the report.
(CARISBAD, Calif.) — A judge granted a gun violence protective order against a Carlsbad, California, man who authorities allege was communicating with the Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect.
Carlsbad police filed the application for a gun violence emergency protective order against Alexander Charles Paffendorf in San Diego County Superior Court on Tuesday. FBI agents “stopped and detained” him after they allege “he was discovered plotting a mass shooting” with Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, the suspected school shooter in Madison, Wisconsin, according to court records obtained by ABC News.
Paffendorf allegedly admitted to authorities “that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building,” a Carlsbad police officer wrote on the protective order application form.
FBI agents saw messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow, the officer stated. Paffendorf has not been charged with a crime.
Rupnow, 15, allegedly opened fire with a handgun at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday morning, killing a fellow student and teacher. Six others were injured.
She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
The restraining order requires Paffendorf to surrender all guns, ammunition and magazines to law enforcement or “sell them to or store them with a licensed firearms dealer” within 48 hours of receipt of the order.
The Carlsbad Police Department said in a statement Thursday, “Carlsbad is not the lead agency on this investigation, but we are in communication with our federal partners, and we do not believe there to be a threat to our city. Because this is an ongoing investigation being handled by another agency, there are no other details to share at the moment.”
The FBI said Thursday it is “not aware of any ongoing threats associated with this matter in Wisconsin or California.”
The agency added, “The Madison Police Department is leading the ongoing investigation into the school shooting in Wisconsin with the assistance of the Milwaukee and San Diego field offices of the FBI, the Carlsbad, California Police Department, and other law enforcement partners. As this is an ongoing investigation, we do not have any further comment.”
A hearing for Paffendorf is scheduled for Jan. 3. Attorney information for the California man was not immediately available.
A judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges in the Uvalde, Texas, criminal case stemming from the 2022 mass shooting and has set a tentative trial date.
Former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander at Robb Elementary School on the day of the shooting, and former school officer Adrian Gonzales appeared in court for a joint pretrial hearing on Thursday.
Arredondo faces 10 counts of child endangerment and abandonment on behalf of the injured and surviving children in classroom 112. Gonzales faces 29 counts: 10 counts for each surviving child and 19 for each deceased child. Arredondo and Gonzales have both pleaded not guilty.
Their charges stem from the May 24, 2022, mass shooting during which a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students at the elementary school. Law enforcement waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
The judge on Thursday denied the motion to quash Arredondo’s indictment. The judge also set a tentative trial start date for October 2025.
Arredondo had filed a motion asking the court to declare his child endangerment indictment invalid, arguing the gunman was solely responsible for the shooting.
Arredondo has repeatedly defended his actions and told investigators he did not believe the gunman was an active shooter when he arrived. He also has insisted he was not in command of the police response.
The indictment alleges that despite having time to respond to the shooting, Gonzales failed to act to impede the gunman and failed to follow active shooter training by not advancing toward the gunfire.
Gonzales’ defense attorney, Nico LaHood, has said, “There was over 370 officers there. We have not seen or even heard of a theory of why Mr. Gonzales is being singled out.”
Families of victims and survivors who were in the courtroom Thursday said they were relieved the case is moving forward.
“It was hard being inside the courtroom while Pete was with his attorneys as we listened to their arguments about why he felt he wasn’t responsible for Jackie’s death,” said Gloria Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jackie, was killed. “After two and half years, it finally feels like things are progressing.”
During the hearing, attorneys discussed their frustration with their inability to receive an unredacted copy of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report about the agency’s response to the Robb Elementary shooting.
To date, Arredondo and Gonzales are the only indicted law enforcement officers of the 376 officers who were among the police response to the shooting.
Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the former chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, surrendered Thursday morning at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on bribery and money laundering charges.
Lewis-Martin reported to the courthouse in lower Manhattan early Thursday with her son, Glenn Martin II, who faces the same charges.
Two real estate investors, Raizada Vaid and Mayank Dwivedi, also face bribery charges in the case.
The group is accused of engaging in a $100,000 bribery scheme while Lewis-Martin was in office, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Lewis-Martin resigned from her position on Sunday.
Vaid and Dwivedi are accused of paying Glenn Martin II $100,000 months after Lewis-Martin allegedly performed favors for the two men, including helping them with issues relating to construction permits and a family member’s visa, according to the indictment.
Glenn Martin II allegedly used the money to buy a Porsche, prosecutors said.
“When City officials monetize their office for personal gain, they undermine fundamental principles of integrity in government, diminish trust in public officials, and unfairly tarnish the reputations of the countless City employees who use their office solely to serve the public good,” New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said in a press release after charges against Lewis-Martin were announced.
The case is separate from federal charges against Adams, sources told ABC News. Adams, who has denied any wrongdoing, is facing corruption charges over allegedly accepting years of luxury travel gifts in exchange for, among other things, persuading the fire department to approve the opening of the new Turkish consulate in Manhattan despite the lingering safety concerns of inspectors.
Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, said Monday that he expected her to be indicted in connection to allegedly improper gifts, according to WABC.
“Pieces of puzzles are going to be put together to make it look as horrible as possible,” Aidala, sitting alongside Lewis-Martin, told reporters Monday. “But we know the truth, and the truth is Ingrid Lewis-Martin never broke the law.”
“I am being falsely accused of something,” Lewis-Martin told reporters Monday. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it is something that is illegal, and I have never done anything that is illegal in my capacity in government.”
Lewis-Martin had her cellphone seized in September when she returned from a trip to Japan and also had her home in Brooklyn searched.
Lewis-Martin has long been one of Adams’ top confidantes as he climbed the political ladder. She served as a senior adviser to Adams for five years when he was a state senator and then as his chief of staff for another seven years. She also served as deputy Brooklyn borough president while Adams was the borough president. He announced Lewis-Martin would become his chief adviser in January 2022.
(NEW YORK) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has reached a settlement with Amazon over allegations of hazardous workplace conditions, ABC News first reported Thursday. The settlement requires that Amazon adopt “corporate-wide ergonomic measures” to reduce the risk of injuries to workers.
The 10 facilities cited in the settlement, located in New York, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey, all had a high number of complaints of workplace injury. Amazon will have to pay a $145,000 penalty, adopt workplace safety measures and allow OSHA access to inspect those facilities for the next two years, according to the terms of the settlement.
Though the settlement only mandates oversight on those 10 facilities, all Amazon facilities will be required to adopt new safety measures and provide procedures for their employees to voice their concerns about workplace conditions.
A Department of Labor official said the settlement is the “largest of its kind” and “will resolve all outstanding ergonomic litigation” by the agency against Amazon. The official noted, however, that the settlement will not affect the investigation into the company by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York over allegations Amazon conspired to conceal injuries and risks to workers at its warehouses. Amazon has denied those allegations.
“Today’s agreement acknowledges our progress and notes that we should keep implementing and following our existing comprehensive ergonomics policies and procedures,” Amazon said in a statement following the announcement of the settlement. “There isn’t a claim of wrong-doing on Amazon’s part for the withdrawn citations, nor a directive to adopt new safety controls. We appreciate OSHA’s willingness to consider all the facts and reach today’s agreement with us, and we look forward to continuing to work with them going forward.”
ABC News reached out to Amazon for additional comment.
This settlement comes as Amazon workers have gone on strike at facilities across the country, citing low pay, lack of benefits and poor conditions.
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is charged in a four-count federal criminal complaint with stalking, murder through the use of a firearm and a firearms offense involving a silencer.
He waived extradition on Thursday morning and was transported via plane and helicopter from Pennsylvania to New York.
Mangione is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in lower Manhattan Thursday afternoon.
A special edition of “20/20” airing Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the manhunt that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who went from the Ivy League to alleged killer.
Mangione agreed to be extradited during an appearance in court in Blair County, Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning.
Mangione stood as the judge read him his rights. The Ivy League graduate answered “yes” when asked if he understood and answered “yes” when asked if he wanted to waive extradition.
NYPD officers sat in the front of the courtroom and took custody of Mangione after his appearance.
Spectators gathered outside the courthouse as Mangione was taken inside.
One person held a sign reading “Deny, Defend, Depose,” echoing the words written on shell casings and a bullet at the murder scene.
Adam Giesseman, who had a sign that said “Free Luigi” and “Murder for Profit is Terrorism,” told ABC News, “Our country is broken.”
Another waiting spectator, who only gave her first name, Natalie, voiced frustration that the insurance system is “set up for profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way — but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” she said.
The federal charges could make Mangione eligible for the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement, “The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
“We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought,” Agnifilo added.
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel on Dec. 4 as the UnitedHealthcare CEO headed to an investors conference. Prosecutors alleged Mangione waited nearly an hour for Thompson to arrive.
A Manhattan grand jury upgraded charges against Mangione to include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The killing in the heart of Midtown Manhattan was “intended to evoke terror,” Bragg said.
In New York, Mangione is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after nearly a week on the run, he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. Mangione had a 9 mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges when apprehended, prosecutors said.
Mangione’s case in Pennsylvania will be kept active; at the conclusion of his trial in New York, prosecutors would determine how to proceed, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said on Thursday.
Mangione’s next hearing in Pennsylvania is scheduled for Feb. 24. This hearing may get postponed or be conducted as a remote Zoom appearance given the impracticality of returning Mangione to Pennsylvania for an in-person hearing, Weeks said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the former chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, surrendered at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday morning to face criminal charges.
The exact charges against her are expected to to be announced later Thursday.
Lewis-Martin resigned from her position on Sunday.
The case against her stems from an ongoing investigation by the district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The case is separate from federal charges against Adams, the sources said. Adams, who has denied any wrongdoing, is facing corruption charges over allegedly accepting years of luxury travel gifts in exchange for, among other things, persuading the fire department to approve the opening of the new Turkish consulate in Manhattan despite the lingering safety concerns of inspectors.
Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, said Monday that he expected her to be indicted in connection to allegedly improper gifts, according to WABC.
“Pieces of puzzles are going to be put together to make it look as horrible as possible,” Aidala, sitting alongside Lewis-Martin, told reporters Monday. “But we know the truth, and the truth is Ingrid Lewis-Martin never broke the law.”
She and her son, Glenn Martin II, reported to the courthouse in lower Manhattan early Thursday. Two other men are also facing charges, WABC reported.
The two men allegedly loaned Glenn Martin II $100,000 so he could buy a Porsche after Lewis-Martin had allegedly assisted the men with a problem with the Buildings Department relating to a hotel construction project, according to WABC.
“I am being falsely accused of something,” Lewis-Martin told reporters Monday. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it is something that is illegal, and I have never done anything that is illegal in my capacity in government.”
Lewis-Martin had her cellphone seized in September when she returned from a trip to Japan and also had her home in Brooklyn searched.
(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” over what the appeals court called “a significant appearance of impropriety,” the ruling said.
The criminal indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Following the ruling, the Fulton County DA’s office filed notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment further to ABC News.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
“The Georgia Court Of Appeals in a well-reasoned and just decision has held that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in the case against President Trump requires the disqualification of Willis and her office,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in response to the ruling. “The Court highlighted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by the disqualification of her and her entire office. As the Court rightfully noted, only the remedy of disqualification will suffice to restore public confidence.”
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
The Georgia election interference case is one of four criminal cases that were brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021. His two federal cases, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election and refusing to return classified documents, were dropped following Trump’s reelection last month, due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump’s sentencing in New York, following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 election, was postponed indefinitely following Trump’s reelection last month.
This illustration shows the locations where ABC News tested abandoned oil and gas wells for leaks; ABC News
(WEST TEXAS, Texas) — Rancher Laura Briggs rises early to care for the livestock scattered across her homestead on the arid plains of West Texas. Briggs and her husband saved up for years to purchase the land and build their family’s dream home near the Pecos River.
“It was a lifestyle choice to raise our kids rurally in the hopes that they would appreciate nature and where their food comes from and hard work and the other side of life that’s not so easy,” Briggs, a mother of four, told ABC News. “It could have been so much better without the fight.”
The “fight” that Briggs says has come to dominate her life in recent years centers around the 30-plus abandoned oil and gas wells littered across her ranch and left to rot by their former operators. She knew the inactive wells were on the land when she bought it, but what she didn’t expect to find was that some were leaking and no one was taking responsibility for the cleanup.
“I thought the state regulated this stuff. I never thought that this would be allowed to go on,” Briggs said.
As a result, Briggs’ dream of a bucolic ranch life has instead been marred by animals found covered in oil, concerns for her groundwater and air quality, and even the looming threat of a random explosion.
“My biggest fear is that I have a catastrophe close to my house. We have some wells close to the house and we don’t know what’s going on underground,” she said.
More than 3.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells are littered across the United States and an estimated 14 million Americans live within a mile of one of the wells. Those that leak are known in West Texas as “zombie wells” and can contaminate groundwater and spew carcinogenic chemicals and potent greenhouse gases into the environment, according to the Department of the Interior. In some cases, the wells have been blamed for home explosions.
“These wells are a threat to people and livelihoods, and especially kids and older people and people with health problems,” said Adam Peltz, director and senior attorney of the energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need to go find them because they’re a problem, not just for the people who live nearby, but for everyone on the planet,” Peltz said.
Despite the potential risks, few abandoned wells are ever regularly checked for leaks. ABC News, after weeks of research and calls with multiple leading experts in the field, identified the datasets, technology and learned the recommended safety practices before fanning out across the nation with gas detectors to locate and test more than 70 abandoned wells for leaks.
ABC News partnered with six owned and affiliated stations as part of the reporting project: KABC, KAKE, KFSN, KMGH, KTRK, and WRTV.
The device used in the investigation can detect hundreds of combustible gases and whether a well is leaking while the test is being conducted, several leading experts confirmed. The device is unable to determine the exact gas type and full scope of any leak over time.
Studies have shown that leaking abandoned wells typically emit methane — a highly combustible and potent greenhouse gas. But they can also leak carcinogenic benzene, as well as hydrogen sulfide or H2S, an extremely deadly gas that can kill humans even during short exposures.
In all, 40 out of the 76 wells tested by ABC News across five states were leaking oil or combustible gas when they were tested. Leaking wells were discovered on Kansas farms, beside New York streams, near Colorado schools and along hiking trails just outside of Los Angeles. The team also looked for leaks in the Gulf of Mexico, where more than 14,000 offshore abandoned wells are located. During a boat ride into Trinity Bay, just outside of Houston, the team carefully tested 10 decaying offshore wells and found seven to be leaking combustible gas at the time.
Billions in Costs to Taxpayers
While abandoned wells have been documented in more than 26 states, no place has more decaying underground pipes than Texas. More than 600,000 of the pipes exist in the state and they are particularly common in the Permian Basin, a prolific oil producing region where Laura Briggs lives.
ABC News tested five of the abandoned wells closest to Briggs’ home and found two to be leaking oil and combustible gas at the time.
The wells’ latest operators declared bankruptcy years ago, making them what’s often called an “orphan well.” With no viable owner, it’s now left up to the state — and ultimately taxpayers — to pay to plug the abandoned wells, permanently sealing off the holes to stop potential contamination from leaks. Despite years of complaints, Briggs says only three of the 30-plus orphan wells on her land have been plugged by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry.
“They’ve been plugged because they leaked so bad, the Railroad Commission literally had to come out and do something,” Briggs said, arguing that the commission often waits until a well suffers a major blowout before committing to plugging the well. Briggs says one of the wells on her property has been leaking oil above ground for nearly 10 years, but the state has so far refused to plug it according to its priority level.
Texas has more than 8,500 documented “orphan” wells and more are added to the list every year. Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright told KTRK in Houston that “we do not have the money” to plug all of Texas orphan wells but that the agency had “developed a very good system” to prioritize plugging operations for those that leak — adding the commission had plugged 730 wells in 2023.
Properly plugging a single abandoned orphan well can cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of taxpayer dollars in part because the bonds oil and gas companies are required to post before drilling a well are rarely enough to cover the actual cost of plugging it, leaving taxpayers to pick up the rest of the tab. There have been numerous attempts on both the state and federal level to pass laws raising the bonds required by companies to cover plugging costs, but few have passed as they repeatedly face strong opposition from industry trade groups.
“Industry associations will go to legislators and regulators and say you can’t raise these bond amounts. It’ll put us out of business. Don’t make any changes,” Peltz told ABC News.
“And the problem with that is, well, are we supposed to live with orphan wells? Then why is the public subsidizing this activity? The current arrangement isn’t working so we need to come up with something new,” Peltz said.
The American Petroleum Institute declined to be interviewed for this report and did not respond to written questions. The institute wrote in a statement to ABC News that “the proper sealing of oil and natural gas wells is paramount to ensure safety, sustainability, and environmental protection, and API and our member companies are committed to responsible development of our nation’s energy resources from start to finish.”
In 2021, Congress set aside an unprecedented $4.7 billion for plugging abandoned wells nationwide and the money has begun to flow to qualifying state agencies. However, an ABC News data analysis of multiple sources estimates that the cost of plugging most of the nation’s abandoned and unplugged wells could be more than $250 billion and current government funding will only cover plugging costs for about 6% of the nation’s wells.
‘This ground is dead forever’
Just a few miles from Briggs’ ranch lies one of the most notorious abandoned wells in the nation and a striking example of what can happen if a well is neglected for decades.
Formed by a leaking well that was drilled in the 1950s, the 60-acre Lake Boehmer can seem like a surreal mirage from a distance: its turquoise waters and salt crusted shores standing in stark contrast to the harsh desert plains it has been flooding with toxic water for decades. The well leaks up to 600 gallons a minute of water that contains arsenic, benzene, hydrogen sulfide and at times has even proven radioactive, according to studies by the local water district.
Even before coming within sight of the “lake,” a visitor is greeted by the potent stench of rotten eggs — a tell-tale sign of deadly hydrogen sulfide gas that ABC News detected during its visit.
According to state records, the leaking well that created Lake Boehmer was drilled looking for oil in 1951, but the operators later converted it into a water well before abandoning it. As a result, the Texas Railroad Commission has refused to plug it, claiming the responsibility — and hefty price tag — lies with the county water district. The water district argues only the Railroad Commission has the responsibility and the funds required. As the dispute plays out in court the well continues to leak and some worry it could eventually contaminate local aquifers – the underground rock or sediment that stores water.
“There’s bones all around here, because the birds come and there’s H2S in this water and eventually the gas kills ’em. And so this is where they come to die,” local rancher Schuyler Wight told ABC News.
Wight’s ranch borders Lake Boehmer and is home to more than 200 orphan wells — many of which are leaking. One abandoned well on his land that he showed ABC News had formed a toxic pool of produced water that stretched down nearby dirt roads. While there, ABC News also detected the presence of deadly H2S gas.
“This ground is dead forever,” Wight said while looking out over the site. “This ground will never grow anything on it.”
Shortly after ABC News visited the site, state authorities stopped the leak aboveground but Wight worries they haven’t done enough to protect his groundwater or to prevent another blowout from happening again.
The Wells Buried Beneath America’s Cities
Most abandoned wells are in rural areas like Wight’s, but a surprising number can be found buried beneath America’s cities. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Los Angeles. Built atop one of the nation’s oldest and most productive oil fields, thousands of abandoned wells lie buried beneath the city’s development, their presence often only revealed by historic photographs and by those who know where to look.
In the working-class neighborhood of Vista Hermosa, fence posts lining an athletic field are actually methane vents designed to mitigate the risks of more than a dozen abandoned wells buried beneath the field. Three of the wells beneath the field remain unplugged and the vents are designed to discharge potentially harmful gases they can emit away from nearby school buildings into open areas.
“They’re actually a part of the fence. So they’re camouflaged a little bit,” lifelong resident Danny Luna told ABC News on a tour of the area. For years, Luna and Rosalinda Morales, another lifelong resident, have been advocating for authorities to plug the more than 800 documented abandoned wells located beneath their community — which they believe pose a serious public health threat.
“We have a lot of medical conditions here. We have people with autoimmune conditions, cancers,” Morales told ABC News. It is difficult to prove exactly what is causing residents’ health issues in the area, but studies show those living near oil and gas wells are more prone to such illnesses.
Brenda Valdivia says she has been dealing with illnesses she believes are tied to the area’s wells since she was 10 years old. As a child, Valdivia spent time at the home of a baby-sitter that was directly beside an active oil well. By age 10, she was “getting really sick. I had high fevers, rash on my face.” Eventually, she says doctors diagnosed her with lupus and told her it was likely caused by environmental factors after testing failed to show she was genetically predisposed to the disease. She suffered two strokes in one night and has spent most of her life in and out of hospitals.
“I’m still recovering. And I take it day by day,” she said.
Rosalinda Morales, an asthma survivor, grew up beside an active well that was later abandoned and says she spent her “whole life smelling rotten eggs.” For years, Morales’ next-door neighbor complained to authorities of a similar odor emanating from under his front steps. After nothing was done, he ultimately took a jackhammer to the steps and made a startling discovery — an oil well that was emitting potentially deadly H2S gas.
“Pretty scary, because that’s what we’re breathing here,” Morales said. That well, along with another across the street, was eventually plugged by state authorities after it was discovered, but hundreds in the area remain unplugged and mostly buried out of sight.
On the outskirts of the city, however, some of Los Angeles’ abandoned wells can still be seen up close. ABC News located and tested three abandoned wells found alongside a popular hiking trail in El Escorpion Park and found two to be leaking oil and/or combustible gas at the time. One of the wells maxed out ABC News’ gas detector with a reading of 10,000 parts per million.
The device ABC News used does not distinguish which combustible gas it detects and more prolonged testing is required to determine the exact size of the leak. But the New Jersey Department of Health says that exposure to anything over 2,000 parts per million of methane is “immediately dangerous to life and health.” CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry in California, wrote to ABC News that the department “does not permit leaks at any level” from abandoned wells.
Inspection records show state authorities know that these wells have been leaking for years and, while they are on the state’s latest list for plugging, they are behind dozens of other wells deemed a higher priority for plugging by the agency.
CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry, wrote to ABC News that they are currently working through a list of 378 wells for plugging and that the wells we tested in El Escorpion Park are a “top priority” and “will be plugged and sealed soon to protect the environment and ensure public safety.”
Still, for residents living near the abandoned wells, plugging them cannot come soon enough.
“The solution is to make enough noise that maybe we’ll get some of this stuff fixed,” Wight told ABC News.
ABC News’ Timmy Truong, Kate Holland and Alex Myers contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA, Ga.) — The Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the court ruled.
The indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
