Judge to hear arguments over whether ICE can re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Kilmar Abrego Garcia attends a rally for him as he arrives for his first check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baltimore Field Office the day after a federal judge ordered his release from a detention in Pennsylvania, on December 12, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The federal judge overseeing Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s immigration case is scheduled to hear arguments Monday over whether ICE should be allowed to re-detain Abrego Garcia while the government attempts to deport him to Liberia or another country.
Abrego Garcia was released on Dec. 11 after the judge, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, found the government had detained him “without lawful authority.”
In part, Judge Xinis said he had not been issued a formal order of removal during his immigration proceedings in 2019, when a judge also barred the government from deporting him to his native El Salvador due to his fear of persecution.
Following Abrego Garcia’s release, an immigration judge “corrected” the error and added a removal order to his record, finding that it “was erroneously omitted.”
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, despite the 2019 court order barring his removal to that country, after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which Judge Xinis released him from ICE detention while he awaits trial. He is scheduled to go to trial on the Tennessee charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, in January.
On Friday, his attorneys filed a motion seeking sanctions against the Trump administration for allegedly violating a court order that barred officials from making extrajudicial statements that could impact the case. After Abrego Garcia’s release from ICE detention, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino called him an “alien smuggler” and “wife beater” on national TV, his attorneys said.
In this handout, the mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019. Kypros/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — One day before the deadline for the Justice Department to release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday publicly disclosed another batch of photographs provided by the late financier’s estate in response to Congressional subpoenas.
The cache of about 70 photos includes include heavily redacted photos of women’s passports, images of famous men who associated with Epstein, and “concerning text messages about recruiting women for Jeffrey Epstein,” according to a statement from Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee.
“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people,” Garcia said in the statement. “As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”
The photos released Thursday are from a larger batch of more than 95,000 images turned over last week by the Epstein estate. The photos were provided to Congress without context, timing, or locations. The images are therefore “presented as received,” the Democrats said.
One image shows billionaire Bill Gates standing with a woman — whose face is concealed — in what appears to be a hotel lobby. Another shows the philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky aboard an airplane chatting with Epstein.
The appearance of the men in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Another photo shows a woman’s lower leg and foot on what looks like a bed, with a paperback copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” in the background. On the woman’s foot is a handwritten quote from the controversial 1955 novel about a professor’s obsession with a young girl.
“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock,” the quote reads.
Other images include a heavily redacted Ukrainian passport of a woman, with all the identifying information covered with black boxes to protect her identify. After Epstein’s 2006 arrest and jail sentence in Florida for solicitation of a minor, he was alleged to have turned his focus to recruiting young women from Eastern European countries.
A screenshot released Thursday of a text message chat — whose participants are not revealed — seems to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.
“I will send u girls now,” the message says. “Maybe someone will be good for J?”
A redacted description lists the woman’s name, age, height, weight and physical measurements. The message indicates the woman would be traveling from Russia.
The House Oversight Committee is conducting a broad inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The committee’s efforts are separate from — though at times overlapping — the new law that requires the DOJ to make public its files on Epstein by Friday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference during moving day at Gracie Mansion on January 12, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A New York City Council employee was detained during a “routine” immigration appointment on Long Island on Monday, according to city officials, who called the incident an “egregious government overreach.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he is “outraged” by the worker’s arrest.
“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” he said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”
The Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest late Monday, saying the employee is in the U.S. illegally and has an alleged criminal history that includes an arrest for assault. The agency did not provide additional details on the assault arrest.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin identified the employee in a statement Monday night as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, whom she alleged is a “criminal illegal alien from Venezuela.”
McLaughlin said Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa in 2017 that required him to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017.
“He had no legal right to be in the United States,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Under Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our law, we will find you and we will arrest you.”
The employee was detained by federal immigration officials during an appointment in Bethpage in Nassau County earlier Monday, according to NYCCouncil Speaker Julie Menin.
The speaker said the employee has legal authorization to remain in the country until this coming October.
Menin said the employee is a “central staff member working as a data analyst for approximately a year.”
The city council learned of his detainment Monday afternoon, when the employee used his one phone call to contact the council’s human resources department for help and said he had been detained, according to Menin.
“DHS confirmed that this employee had gone in for a routine court appointment and was nevertheless detained. They provided no other basis for his detainment,” Menin said during a press briefing on Monday. “On the contrary, he was a city council employee who is doing everything right. He went to the court when he was asked.”
Menin said the city council is demanding the return of the employee, whom she did not identify, citing privacy concerns.
Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman said the employee is of Venezuelan descent and is a “law-abiding immigrant with work authorization.”
“I want to be very clear: There is no indication that there’s anything about this individual other than his immigration status that caused him to be arrested,” he said during Monday’s press briefing.
DHS said the staffer was not authorized to work in the U.S.
The employee has been transferred to a detention center in Manhattan, according to Menin. She said the city council has been unable to reach his family members.
Goldman said his office has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We will continue to fight this,” he said. “We will continue to push for not only this person’s release, which is so obviously necessary, but for this immigration dragnet to stop.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James also called for the staffer’s immediate release, saying in a statement on X, “We will not stand for attacks on our city, its public servants, and its residents.”
In response to the incident, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This is exactly what happens when immigration enforcement is weaponized.”
“Detaining people during routine court appearances doesn’t make us safer,” she said in a statement on X. “It erodes trust, spreads fear, and violates basic principles of fairness.”
Luigi Mangione appears for the second day of a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 02, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A police officer who responded last Dec. 9 to a McDonald’s where witnesses said they may have spotted the man accused of killing a health care CEO testified Tuesday that he knew right away it was the suspect.
“I knew it was him immediately,” Altoona, Pennsylvania, police officer Joseph Detwiler testified about Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year.
Mangione, 27, is in court Tuesday for the second day of a high-stakes hearing in his state criminal case, where his lawyers are fighting to bar prosecutors from using key evidence against him — including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession — by arguing it was unlawfully seized when his backpack was searched without a warrant.
The backpack was searched by law enforcement as they arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania, five days after the fatal shooting of Thompson on a sidewalk in midtown Manhattan. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to killing Thompson.
Defense attorneys have alleged that Detwiler violated Mangione’s rights by questioning him for nearly twenty minutes without reading him his Miranda rights. They argue that mistake should justify barring prosecutors from introducing any testimony about the statements Mangione made to police that morning.
Recollecting the events of Dec. 9, Detwiler testified that he responded sarcastically when he got the dispatch call that a local McDonald’s manager reported a “male who looks like the NYC shooter.” He said he didn’t even turn on his police sirens when he drove to the McDonald’s because he “did not think it was going to be him.”
“I did not think it was going to be the person they thought it was,” he testified, though he noted his supervisor promised to buy him a “hoagie” if he “got the NYC shooter.”
“I said consider it done,” Detwiler testified.
An avid watcher of Fox News, Detwiler testified he saw the images of the murder suspect “a lot” and was familiar with the ongoing coverage of the high-profile assassination. Prosecutor Joel Seidemann walked through each of the photos of the suspect that circulated after the shooting; each time, Detwiler responded in a monotone voice that said he saw the pictures in the same place — Fox News.
“I saw a lot of Fox News and saw a lot of video and articles on the shooter. I saw the person’s picture many, many times prior to those five days — many times,” he said.
During Detwiler’s testimony, prosecutors for the first time played his body-camera footage from the morning of Dec. 9. The footage showed Detwiler and his partner casually entering the McDonald’s before turning right to the rear of the restaurant, where they found Mangione sitting at a table.
“What’s your name?” Detwiler asked in the footage.
“Mark,” Mangione said.
“Mark what?” Detwiler asked.
“Mark Rosario,” Mangione said.
“Someone called and said you were suspicious,” Detwiler said in the video. “Thought you looked like someone.”
Prosecutors on the first day of the hearing on Monday played for the first time security camera footage from inside the McDonald’s where Mangione was arrested, the 911 call placed by the store manager who expressed alarm that he “looked like the CEO shooter in New York,” and the minute-to-minute dispatch audio leading to his arrest.
“There’s a male in the store that looks like the NYC shooter,” a dispatcher said in a recording played in court.
The crux of Mangione’s argument is that his constitutional rights were violated when Pennsylvania police interrogated him before reading him his rights and searching his backpack without a warrant.
Defense lawyers allege that officers waited nearly 20 minutes after first approaching Mangione, extensively questioning him about his whereabouts without informing him of his right to remain silent.
They also allege that officers searched through his backpack — which allegedly contained a handgun, magazine, and his journal — without having a warrant.
Citing police body camera footage, they argue that officers searched Mangione’s backpack as early as 9:58 a.m. but waited until after 5 p.m. to seek a warrant. They have asked the judge to limit prosecutors from using the evidence because it was the “fruit” of an illegal search.
Prosecutors argue the arrest and search were conducted lawfully, and that the evidence overwhelmingly proves Mangione’s guilt.
If defense attorneys succeed in limiting the evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack and statements made during his arrests, they could severely undercut the prosecution’s case against the alleged murderer.
