Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding expected to hit the Plains and South
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Following wet weather at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, parts of the Plains and the South are expected to be hit with powerful thunderstorms beginning on Sunday, potentially bringing large hail and strong wind gusts.
A storm system in the West is slowly making its way to the center of the country with dangerous weather impacts possible across several states to start the week.
The severe thunderstorm threat, which will begin late Sunday across parts of New Mexico and west Texas, will persist into Monday and Tuesday as it shifts east.
These areas could be faced with flash flooding and frequent lightning due to stronger, slow-moving thunderstorms with torrential rain.
Flood watches are now in place for parts of northern New Mexico and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma.
The storm system has also brought strong winds to the Southwest, with air quality alerts in effect through Sunday evening from Palm Springs, California, to Phoenix.
These powerful winds will bring an elevated fire danger to parts of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and the northern Plains on Sunday afternoon, with red flag warnings in effect.
On Tuesday, the system will continue to hit the Central U.S., bringing another round of thunderstorms and heavy rain to portions of the Plains and the South.
The greatest risk for flash flooding will be focused over portions of east Texas, southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana and western Mississippi.
Other areas like Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston and Little Rock, Arkansas, are under an elevated risk for flash flooding. Some have already seen significant rainfall over the past week, making the ground very saturated and allowing for flash flooding to develop when heavy rain falls.
Along with storms in the Plains and the South, rainfall is also possible across the Northeast in the coming days, with locally heavy downpours and isolated flash flooding possible, especially in urban, poor-drainage areas.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia/Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native living Maryland, was deported in March to a mega-prison in his home country of El Salvador — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
His attorneys say that Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen and who has 5-year-old child and two step-children, escaped political violence in El Salvador in 2011 and is not a MS-13 member.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.
Here is how the case has unfolded.
March 15, 2025
The Trump administration, as part of its immigration crackdown, deports three planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador, where they are incarcerated in the notorious CECOT mega-prison under an agreement with the Salvadoran government. The alleged gang members include Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose protected legal status precludes him from being deported to that country.
March 18, 2025
Families of several of the deported men tell ABC News that their detained relatives have no criminal record in the United States — a fact that’s acknowledged by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, who nonetheless says that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
April 1, 2025
In a sworn declaration as part of a lawsuit brought by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official says Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error” — but that he is still under a “final order of removal” for deportation, after the government rescinded his protected legal status due to his purported gang ties as alleged by a confidential police informant.
Court documents say that on March 12, Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed” due to the MS-13 allegations, after which he was transferred to a detention center in Texas and then deported to El Salvador.
April 4, 2025
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, at a hearing in Maryland, grants a preliminary injunction and orders the government to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States by midnight on April 7.
Asked by Judge Xinis under what authority law enforcement officers seized Abrego Garcia, DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni says he does not have the answer, telling the judge, “Your honor, my answer to a lot of these questions is going to be frustrating and I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you on a lot of these questions.”
April 5, 2025
A day after the hearing, the Justice Department places DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni on indefinite paid leave over a “failure to zealously advocate” for the government’s interests.
April 7, 2025
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issues a temporary administrative stay putting off Judge Xinis’ midnight deadline for the government to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, in order to give the court more time to consider the arguments presented by both sides.
April 8, 2025
After the Trump administration, in a court filing, argues that a judge can’t demand Abrego Garcia’s return because a federal court can’t order a president to engage in foreign diplomacy, an attorney for Abrego Garcia tells ABC News he believes the Supreme Court will rule in his client’s favor.
April 9, 2025
In an interview with ABC News, Abrego Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen, denies the Trump administration’s allegation that her husband is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
April 10, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that Judge Xinis “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
“The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority,” the court writes. “The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The Trump administration, interpreting the ruling as prohibiting the district court from ordering the executive branch to take any action that would violate the separation of powers, celebrates the order as a victory for the administration.
April 11, 2025
Saying “the Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly” that Abrego Garcia should be released from El Salvador, Judge Xinis slams the government’s handling of the case and orders the Justice Department to provide her with “daily updates” on Abrego Garcia’s status and their efforts to bring him back.
April 12, 2025
A State Department official, in response to Judge Xinis’ demand for daily updates, tells the judge that Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, but provides no information about their efforts to return him to the United States.
April 14, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an Oval Office meeting with President Trump and the visiting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, says that Abrego Garcia’s return is “up to El Salvador,” after which Bukele says, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
April 15, 2025
Judge Xinis, in a hearing, takes Justice Department attorneys to task over their inaction and orders government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery in order to resolve Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention.
Prior to the hearing, a DHS official says the Trump administration is “prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s presence in the United States … if he presents at a port of entry” — but that DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract him “from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
April 16, 2025
The Department of Justice files notice that it will appeal Judge Xinis’ ruling ordering the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, and releases two documents that were previously used to allegedly tie Abrego Garcia to MS-13.
The developments come on the same day that DHS, in a social media post, shares court records showing that Abrego Garcia’s wife had a month-long order of protection against him in 2021, in which she cited being slapped, hit with an object, and being detained against her will.
April 17, 2025
Slamming the government for “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit denies the Trump administration’s effort to appeal Judge Xinis’ order requiring it to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
(NEW YORK) — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann and his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, have reached a divorce settlement, according to court records.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann was arrested in July 2023.
The terms of the divorce settlement, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court Thursday night, are not public. A judge will review the settlement and must sign off on the divorce to make it final.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
Prosecutors with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office have said Ellerup and the couple’s children were out of town when the victims were killed.
Heuermann is expected back in court Friday as his lawyers ask a judge to disqualify some of the DNA evidence pertaining to nuclear DNA results obtained from hairs recovered from six victims: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The new DNA technique is whole genome sequencing of the DNA within a hair; scientists take all the fragments of DNA and assemble them on the human genome.
Traditional DNA sequencing looks at 15 to 24 points of comparison, while whole genome sequencing looks at 100,000 or more points and the methodology yields only one possible donor.
Heuermann’s defense argued the new DNA methodology has never been tested in New York courts, but prosecutors have said the technique is already used in the medical community and is consistent with what the court system has allowed.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York is set to hear arguments Tuesday after he temporarily ruled that detained migrants being held in the Southern District of New York could not be deported without due process.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled earlier this month that several alleged Venezuelan gang members could not be deported under the Alien Enemies Act without them first receiving notice and an opportunity for a hearing.
The Trump administration last month touched off a legal battle when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged that “many” of the men lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision earlier this month, allowed the Trump administration to resume deportations of alleged migrant gang members under the Alien Enemies Act — but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
Judge Hellerstein, in his temporary order blocking the deportations, suggested his decision was meant to define the parameters of the Supreme Court’s opinion.
The relief Hellerstein granted is limited to approximately a dozen migrants currently detained in a few New York counties.
