Category: Politics

The future looked bright for Luis Eduardo Perez Parra, Leonel Rivas Gonzalez and Abrahan Josue Barrios last week.

After being held in immigration custody for over a year and facing the possibility of transfer to Guantánamo Bay, the three men asked a federal court to intervene, warning they might have “disappeared into the legal black hole” of Guantánamo.

Last Sunday, a federal judge in New Mexico handed down a surprise ruling blocking the Trump administration from sending the men to Guantánamo — the first successful legal challenge to the policy since it was enacted last month.

But their victory was short-lived.

The very next day, the men were placed on the first deportation flight back to Venezuela in over a year, according to their lawyer Jessica Vosburgh.

“It’s hard to imagine that it didn’t have something to do with them filing a habeas piece and then stepping forward to challenge these threatened Guantanamo transfers,” Vosburgh told ABC News. “The court’s order only applied to transfers to Guantánamo, this is just a slap in the face to get deported the next day.”

While Vosburgh stopped short of calling the deportations retaliatory, she said she struggles to see what else could have led to the sudden deportation.

“With thousands of other post-order Venezuelans detained in the United States awaiting removal, it is hard to imagine that petitioners would have been prioritized for these first deportation flights if they had not filed this habeas action, and courageously challenged the executive branch’s reprehensible and legally unsupportable decision to begin shipping detained migrants to the notorious military prison at Guantánamo and holding them there incommunicado,” Vosburgh argued in a court filing voluntarily dismissing the case.

Vosburgh also called out the Trump administration for alleging that her clients — two of whom have no criminal records, and one who was accused of a non-violent offense — were members of the infamous Tren de Aragua gang, which could cause severe harm now that they are back in Venezuela where President Nicolás Maduro has linked the gang to his political opposition.

“Respondents’ reckless labeling of these two Petitioners as gang-affiliated is part of a disturbing pattern, beginning on the Trump campaign trail, of scapegoating and criminalizing migrants who come to this country seeking protection and a better life,” Vosburgh wrote. “It is also part of a trend, fueled by President Trump and his administration and supporters, of painting all Venezuelan migrant men as dangerous gang members deserving of being disappeared into the legal black hole of Guantánamo.”

Vosburgh noted that her clients have safely made it to their homes and been reunited with their families, but the scars of their year-long incarceration remain.

According to Vosburgh, each man endured “dismal conditions” that led them to suffer depression and suicidal ideation. One of the men was admitted into a psychiatric facility last month after he tried to hurt himself, according to the filing.

“Petitioners were needlessly separated for many months from their loved ones in the United States—including Mr. Rivas Gonzalez’s young daughter, who he has not been able to hold in his arms for half of her life. Their separation may now be permanent. It is deeply regrettable and an affront to justice that Petitioners had to suffer so much and for so long,” the filing said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Freshly confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a room packed with federal health workers on Tuesday that he plans to “investigate” whether the timing of childhood vaccinations and anti-depression medications are among several “possible factors” in the nation’s problem with chronic diseases.

“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy told the large crowd Tuesday.

The campaign-style speech at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters was intended for staff only, although a livestream link was circulated. Staff was invited to meet him afterward, and an emailed invitation sent earlier to HHS workers noted “selfies are welcome!”

Kennedy’s offer of selfies with staff came amid widespread firings and resignations across the federal government were underway, including at HHS. Agency officials have not provided details on the firings, including what the impact there could be.

According to people familiar with the effort, some 700 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were fired late last week.

Kennedy urged staff to keep an “open mind” on Tuesday as he planned to turn the agency’s vast resources to revisit matters considered as settled science.

“We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease,” Kennedy said. “Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”

He then gave a list of these “possible factors” to investigate including the childhood vaccine schedule and “SSRI and other psychiatric drugs,” referring to federally approved drugs that help treat such conditions as depression and anxiety.

Studies do not suggest vaccines or SSRIs are to blame for chronic illnesses, such as autism or obesity. Critics argue Kennedy’s rhetoric could create more doubt and public mistrust of these medicines.

Also on his list was electromagnetic radiation, herbicides and pesticides, ultra-processed foods, artificial food, allergies, microplastics and long-lasting chemicals used in the production of non-stick pans. Scientists are actively exploring the possible health impacts of environmental toxins, with some studies suggesting they could play a role in chronic illnesses.

Kennedy’s willingness to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule appears to be at odds with his Senate testimony in January in which he told skeptical lawmakers that he specifically supported federal recommendations.

“I support vaccines. I support the vaccine schedule. I support good science,” Kennedy testified last month.

Vaccinating infants and young children is widely recommended as a way to prevent kids from being exposed to life-threatening diseases like measles and to protect other children in school.

Kennedy has previously pushed a debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, despite numerous large-scale studies finding no connection. He appeared to walk back that claim in his Senate testimony last month, and told lawmakers he wouldn’t try to change the vaccine schedule for children.

ABC’s Soo Youn and Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge appears poised to block the Trump administration if the Department of Defense attempts to place limitations on or ban transgender service members.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is still hearing arguments Tuesday in the case but signaled deep skepticism with the claim that transgender service members lessen the military’s lethality or readiness.

“You and I both agree that the greatest fighting force that world history has ever seen is not going to be impacted in any way by less than 1% of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them. Would you agree with that?” Judge Reyes asked during a hearing this morning.

“No, Your Honor, I’m not. I can’t agree with that,” a lawyer for the Department of Justice responded.

At issue is Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order that directed the DOD to update its guidance “regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service and to rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.” While the Department of Defense has not issued final guidance on transgender service members, the order led to a pause in gender affirming care for service members and is expected to lead to a significant curtailment of transgender service members based on “readiness and lethality.”

With the DOD policy expected to be finalized over the coming week, Reyes said she would hold off on issuing an order but had largely made up her mind about the legality of the order, at one point remarking that “smarter people on the D.C. Circuit would have to tell me I’m wrong” about the policy. She added that the central premise of the executive order — that only two genders exist — is “not biologically correct.”

Reyes also raised concerns about the wording of the executive order, which she criticized for being intentionally imprecise and a pretext for a ban on transgender soldiers.

“If we had President Trump here right now, and I said to him, ‘Is this a transgender ban?’ What do you think he would say?” Reyes asked.

“I have no idea, Your Honor,” said DOJ attorney Jason Lynch.

“I do. He would say, ‘Of course it is.’ Because he calls it a transgender ban, because all the language in it is indicative,” Reyes said.

The judge — who began the hearing by noting that every service member regardless of their gender ideology “deserves our gratitude” — also spent a portion of the hearing questioning Lynch about the group of transgender soldiers who filed the lawsuit.

“If you were in a foxhole, you wouldn’t care about these individuals’ gender ideology, right? You would just be happy that someone with that experience and that bravery and that honorable service to the country was sitting right next to you. Right?” Reyes asked.

“Don’t want to testify as a witness, Your Honor, or offer my personal views of hypothetical,” Lynch responded before conceding, “If I were in a foxhole, I doubt that the gender identity would be a primary concern.”

Reyes also pushed the lawyer for the Department of Justice — who she later commended for arguing his case well — to admit that the transgender soldiers made the country “safer.”

“Are they honorable, truthful, and disciplined?” Reyes asked. “As far as I know, among them, they have over 60 years of military service.”

“That’s correct,” Lynch said.

“And you would agree that together, the plaintiffs have made America safer?” Reyes asked.

“I would agree, yes,” Lynch said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C. abruptly resigned Tuesday amid pressure from top Trump Justice Department appointees to freeze assets stemming from a Biden administration-era environmental initiative, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

A resignation letter sent to the office’s employees by prosecutor Denise Cheung did not detail specific reasons for her sudden departure from the office, but encouraged prosecutors to continue adhering to the Constitution.

“Please continue to support one another, to fulfill your commitment to pursuing justice without fear or prejudice, and to be kind to, and take care of, yourselves,” Cheung said. “You are the resource our nation has.”

Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Cheung was under pressure from Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership, including acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, to launch a formal criminal investigation into an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding initiative pursued under the Biden administration, a request Cheung believed lacked the proper predication to initiate a grand jury investigation.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has previously addressed with DOJ their effort to rescind contracts tied to the so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. DOJ’s intervention in the process can only come when prosecutors can credibly allege that the funds are tied to a crime.

Cheung’s resignation letter comes just one day after President Trump announced Martin as his nominee for U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. amid a wave of controversial actions and statements by Martin in his weeks leading the office, actions that have led to growing consternation among career prosecutors.

As ABC News has previously reported, Martin has represented defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and was on Capitol grounds himself on that day, though it’s unclear whether he ever entered areas officially designated as restricted.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — The number of apprehensions along the southwestern U.S. border plummeted by a third during January, according to statistics obtained by ABC News on Tuesday.

There were 61,465 apprehensions along the southwest border in January, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, down from 96,048 in December 2024.

The numbers fell even more after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, according to the data.

In the three weeks before the inauguration, there was a daily average of more than 2,000 apprehensions, which fell to a daily average of 786 migrant apprehensions after the inauguration.

There were 176,195 migrant apprehensions along the southwest border in January 2024.

From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period in 2024, according to data obtained by ABC News. In the 11 days after Jan. 20, migrants apprehended at ports of entry declined by 93%.

Trump signed executive orders shortly after taking office that declared a national emergency at the border and authorized active duty military and National Guard troops to support CPB’s law enforcement activities. The government has been using military planes to return migrants to their home countries. In addition, the administration has said it is targeting gang members and violent offenders in its crackdown. It also rescinded a policy that barred law enforcement activities at schools and churches and at courthouses.

“The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are aggressively implementing the President’s Executive Orders to secure our borders. These actions have already resulted in dramatic improvements in border security,” said Pete Flores, acting CBP commissioner. “The reduction in illegal aliens attempting to make entry into the U.S., compounded by a significant increase in repatriations, means that more officers and agents are now able to conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our country safer.”

CBP and military troops have “dramatically increased” patrolling the southern border, according to CBP.

Numbers of monthly border apprehensions fell below 100,000 for the first time in years in November 2024, according to CBP data.

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Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Sunday that President Donald Trump is the only one who has the ability to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate to end the war with Ukraine.

“Putin knows the one person that can truly change the war is the United States,” Mullin told co-anchor Jonathan Karl on ABC News’ “This Week.” “If we went all-in for Ukraine, if we went all-in with the resources we have, from air superiority to the weapons that we can deploy to Ukraine, Putin knows at that point he would be in an extremely negative position.”

“I think that being the opportunity for President Trump to talk to Putin and say, ‘Listen, we want to end the war. We don’t want to have to engage more, but we’re not going to allow you to move forward. So let’s negotiate a peace deal here, or you’re going to force our hand to be farther involved.'”

Trump announced via social media on Wednesday that his team would begin negotiations with Putin to end the nearly 3-year-long war. Trump said he and Putin discussed an end to the war in which Ukraine cedes territory captured by Russia and gives up its ambitions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), two major concessions for Ukraine.

Many world leaders argue Trump has given into Putin’s demands before negotiations begin. Trump added that he informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his call with Putin after it concluded.

Trump originally made no mention of whether Ukraine would be involved in negotiations, but later said that they would “of course” be involved.

National security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saudi Arabia this week, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Waltz, Rubio and Witkoff are expected to meet with top Russian officials, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The specific timing of the trip is not clear, and it is unclear whether Ukraine will be involved in the talks.

Mullin said he is looking for a scenario in which both parties are present at the negotiating table.

“I know the negotiations are moving forward, and we want to have Ukraine and Russia both at the table, and I think the negotiations go better if both sides are looking for a peace deal, because they’re at a neutral position,” Mullin said.

Mullin praised Trump’s negotiation tactics, despite continuing backlash.

“What President Trump is doing here is actually really smart. He’s meeting with Zelenskyy. He’s having conversations with him. You’re seeing [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio. You saw, you saw that the senators and representatives both met with Zelenskyy while they were in Munich, and you’re seeing them also meeting with Putin in Saudi Arabia,” Mullin said. “What that is doing, Jon, is, that’s putting both people, getting them in separate rooms, talking about what they will accept, and then finding out a negotiation path forward before you bring them to the table. A lot of times, bring people to the table too fast, Jon, it’ll blow up.”

Mullin also defended Elon Musk’s efforts to overhaul the federal government.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began directing mass layoffs after their deferred resignation program ended on Feb. 12. Initially, DOGE has its sights set on probationary employees, individuals with only a couple of years of service, which is nearly 200,000 government workers.

“Anytime you take over a situation, like Elon Musk has had many opportunities and many experiences with taking over businesses, you have to start cutting some of the fat. And unfortunately, the number one expense we have in the United States government right now is payroll,” Mullin said.

Karl noted that the largest expenses in the federal budget are for entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Musk has promised transparency in his actions, and many Democratic lawmakers have called for him to testify in front of Congress. Whether he does should be left to Trump, Mullin said.

“That’s up to President Trump. Keep in mind, President Trump put in Musk to be a consultant, just like many successful corporations around the world, including myself, that have hired consultants to come in and look at it from an unbiased perspective,” Mullin said.

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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has requested access to an Internal Revenue Service system that retains the personal tax information of millions of Americans, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The system, known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System, is used by IRS employees to review tax information, issue notices and update taxpayer records.

Access to the files, which is tightly controlled within the agency, had not been granted as of this weekend, several sources told ABC News.

Still, the request itself has been received with alarm both within the government and among privacy experts who say that granting Musk access to Americans’ private taxpayer data could be extraordinarily dangerous.

Musk, estimated to be the richest man in the world, has criticized federal judges for curbing his power and called for their impeachment. Musk also has alleged without evidence or examples of wrongdoing that federal workers were defrauding taxpayers.

“We do find it rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,” Musk told reporters on Feb. 12 while in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump. “We’re just curious as to where it came from.”

Earlier this month, DOGE employees demanded access to the Treasury Department’s vast federal payment system responsible for managing trillions of dollars in government expenditures. That access triggered a lawsuit by 19 states and has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

Sources say one DOGE staffer arrived at the IRS last Thursday seeking meetings with various offices about how the IRS collects and manages data and what each business unit within the IRS does. It is not clear whether that staffer made the request to access IDRS or if it came through via the White House.

The White House did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

According to the Washington Post, which first reported the development, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give DOGE officials access to several systems, including IDRS.

Musk and the White House have not said what federal data the DOGE team has been able to get to, or what’s been done with the data that’s been acquired.

“People who share their most sensitive information with the federal government do so under the understanding that not only will it be used legally, but also handled securely and in ways that minimize risks like identity theft and personal invasion, which this reporting brings into serious question,” said Elizabeth Laird, a former state privacy officer now with the Center for Democracy and Technology.

When pressed by reporters on what checks are in place to ensure Musk — whose companies have billions of dollars in current federal contracts — is accessing data to his advantage, the billionaire insisted that DOGE posts all of its activity on its website “so all of our actions are maximally transparent.”

The DOGE site on Sunday included a list of mostly canceled government contracts and a message on its “savings” tab: “Receipts coming over the weekend!”

According to one person familiar with DOGE’s efforts, the team acquiring access the IRS system would not allow them to change any data within it. But if granted, the access would allow unfettered access to access any person’s tax filings.

According to an IRS rulebook for the system posted online, anyone accessing IDRS is specifically not allowed to review the personal tax information of relatives, friends, neighbors or celebrities.

“IDRS users shall not access the account of any taxpayer or another IRS employee unless there is a business need and access has been formally authorized as part of the user’s official duties,” the agency rulebook stated.

The policy noted: “Willful unauthorized disclosure, access or inspection of non-computerized taxpayer records, including hard copies of returns – as well as computerized information – is a crime, punishable upon conviction, by fines, prison terms and termination of employment.”

While a district court judge in Manhattan has temporarily blocked DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department system for now, a separate ruling by another district court judge has allowed DOGE to access data at the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has sparked concerns within the intelligence community after it posted information about an agency that oversees U.S. intelligence satellites to its newly launched government website.

The DOGE website, updated earlier this week to include information about the federal workforce across agencies, contained details about the headcount and budget for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites, according to a review by ABC News.

Multiple intelligence community sources told ABC News that this likely represents a significant breach.

John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, said that anytime any details about U.S. citizens working for one of the intel agencies is released, it puts their safety in jeopardy.

A former CIA official who served on classification review boards called the incident a “significant” breach, “particularly if it involves the budget and personnel of the NRO,” adding that “it could be even more significant if it involves declassifying sensitive information under executive authority.”

Mick Mulroy, an ABC News national security and defense analyst and a former CIA officer, said “I do not know whether classified information has been publicly disclosed but there are several reasons that the size, budget, and of course names of those in the intelligence community should not be publicly disclosed.”

“Our adversaries want to collect as much information as they can to determine what we are doing, how we are doing, the extent of our investment in intelligence collection and of course the identity of those involved so the can be targeted for intelligence purposes,” Mulroy said.

HuffPost was first to report the information on DOGE’s website.

Following the publication of this report, a Trump administration official told ABC News, “DOGE is sharing OPM data from under the Biden administration. The headcount for this agency has been publicly available on OPM’s website. This is the same intelligence community that wrote in a letter that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Their lack of credibility is not up for debate.”

The bottom of the DOGE.GOV page states, “Workforce data excludes Military, Postal Service, White House, intelligence agencies, and others.”

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries decried what he called the “toxic bait-and-switch” of President Donald Trump’s leadership on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.

“Donald Trump and Republicans consistently promised that they were going to lower the high cost of living, and they’ve done the exact opposite,” Jeffries told co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “They’ve shown no interest in lowering costs in the United States of America, which are too high.”

Jeffries said the Trump administration has “broken their promise” to Americans, and accused them of having “no interest in improving the quality of life of hard working American taxpayers.”

“Instead, what they’re trying to do while they distract the American people is to jam the GOP tax scam down the throats of people all across this country, all in service of massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations,” he continued. “It’s a toxic bait-and-switch that is underway, and we will continue to push back forcefully.”

While Jeffries blasted his Republican counterparts, Speaker Mike Johnson has asserted Democrats are “flailing,” saying they “have no clear leader.”

But Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia has also suggested the party is without a clear leader. “We’re still looking for that national spokesperson,” Beyer told Axios. “And it could be that Hakeem becomes that national voice. … It hasn’t happened yet.”

Asked to respond to that, Jeffries said it was his “honor to be House Democratic leader.”

“We’re going to continue to work together in an all-hands-on-deck effort to push back against the far-right extremism that is being unleashed on this country with record velocity,” he said. “We’re pushing back forcefully against those efforts every day, every week, every month, every year, and that will continue.”

During the interview, Jeffries also said he was “very concerned” by the Department of Justice dropping the bribery case against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

“Mayor Adams has a responsibility to convince the people of New York City that he will be able to continue to govern in a manner that puts their best interests first at all times, and that he’s not simply taking orders from a Trump administration, a Trump Department of Justice, or Trump officials who do not have the best interests of the city of New York at heart,” said Jeffries, who represents a Brooklyn district in the House.

“This Department of Justice is not promoting law and order — it’s promoting lawlessness and disorder,” he added. “And that’s been consistent with what we’ve seen from the Trump administration from the very beginning.”

As an example of this, Jeffries pointed to the mass pardoning of convicted Jan. 6 rioters “who attacked and brutally beat police officers and then were released back into communities all across the country, threatening public safety.”

Many of the pardoned rioters “have extensive criminal records for things like domestic violence, weapons charges that are serious and rape,” he added.

“This is not an administration that is committed to the safety of the American people. They continue to undermine it and flood the zone with chaos,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can continue to access sensitive records from at least three federal agencies after a federal judge in Washington denied a request to block Musk’s budget-slashing team from the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

U.S. District Judge John Bates, in a late-night ruling, denied a request made by a group of unions and nonprofits to issue a temporary order blocking DOGE from the sensitive records maintained by the three agencies.

Elon Musk has repeatedly targeted Bates over the last week on X – including calling for the judge’s impeachment – after Bates issued a decision in another case ordering multiple agencies to restore public health data after the Trump administration suddenly removed it.

“There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one,” Musk wrote on Wednesday in response to a post about the judge.

The tech billionaire celebrated Friday’s ruling in a post on X.

The judge’s decision came down to the question of whether DOGE has the authority to “detail” its people to individual parts of the federal government where – as employees of that department or agency – the individuals associated with DOGE could legally access the sensitive records. To have that authority, DOGE would have to be considered an “agency” in the eyes of the law, Bates wrote.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that DOGE is not an agency — because it was created via an executive order — and therefore is not entitled to detail its employees to parts of the federal government.

Curiously, lawyers for DOGE have attempted to avoid the “agency” label during court hearings despite its “strong claim” to agency status, Bates wrote.

“This appears to come from a desire to escape the obligations that accompany agencyhood” — such as being subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act — “while reaping only its benefits,” the judge wrote.

Ultimately, the disagreed with DOGE’s own interpretation of its status — determining it likely is an “agency” — and delivering it a surprise win by determining that DOGE has the authority to continue to access to sensitive records.

“For the reasons explained above, on the record as it currently stands and with limited briefing on the issue, the case law defining agencies indicates that plaintiffs have not shown a substantial likelihood that [DOGE] is not an agency. If that is so, [DOGE] may detail its employees to other agencies consistent with the Economy Act,” he wrote.

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