Trump administration says ‘top MS-13 national leader’ arrested
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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. has arrested a top MS-13 gang member, according to a post on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“I’m proud to announce that early this morning our brave law enforcement officers conducted a successful operation that captured a top MS-13 national leader,” Bondi posted. “DOJ will not rest until we make America safe again.”
The photo shared on X by Bondi showed a major operation in northern Virginia with FBI officials, including Director Kash Patel, and dozens of officers.
At a press conference on site, Bondi, Patel and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin touted the arrest of a 24-year-old who was allegedly a top-3 MS-13 gang member.
Bondi touted the operation as a success, lauding the teamwork of the various agencies involved and said she personally witnessed the collaboration.
“America is safer today because of one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13, he is off the streets,” she said. “This guy was living in a neighborhood right around you. No longer. Thanks to the great men and women of law enforcement, this task force that we have created is remarkable, using incredible technology that we will not discuss, to catch and apprehend these horrible, violent, worst of the worst criminals.”
Officials did not release the name of the individual they arrested.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday morning it was a “big win” for Americans.
“This was a very violent individual who was picked up in a home with five children present,” she said. “So our communities are safer this morning, it’s a good day.”
President Donald Trump celebrated the arrest in a post on his social media platform, applaud his “border czar,” Tom Homan.
“Just captured a major leader of MS13. Tom HOMAN is a superstar!,” Trump wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(MINNETONKA, Minn.) — An individual was arrested near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota on Monday after officials said they “issued threats of violence” directed at the facility, but stressed the person had no “specific grievances” with the company.
The suspect contacted the FBI Minneapolis Field Office at approximately 10:47 a.m. to issue the threats “if specific demands were not met,” the FBI and Minnetonka Police Department said in a joint statement.
Officials said a crisis negotiator then spoke with the individual by phone while a multi-agency response was deployed to the facility.
The FBI and police said the suspect voluntarily surrendered and was taken into custody without incident within around 45 minutes of the initial response.
The incident comes several months after the health insurance provider’s late CEO, Brian Thompson, was gunned down in Manhattan and as the trial surrounding his accused killer, Luigi Mangione, continues to capture the nation’s attention.
The FBI and police, however, said in the statement Monday that early investigations into the incident indicate that there’s “no indication” the suspect had “specific grievances” against UnitedHealthcare.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, officials said.
Rumeysa Ozturk is shown in this undated photo. Obtained by ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Boston ruled that Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk cannot be deported until she decides whether she has jurisdiction to rule if Ozturk was lawfully taken into custody.
Judge Denise Casper said Friday that Ozturk “shall not be removed from the United States until further Order of this Court.”
The government revoked Ozturk’s visa due to her pro-Palestinian activism, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who added the State Department may have revoked more than 300 student visas since the beginning of the second Trump administration.
“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said during a press conference in Guyana on Thursday.
Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested by immigration authorities as she was headed to meet her friends and break her fast during Ramadan on Tuesday.
She is listed in the ICE database as “in custody” and appears to be held at an ICE processing center in Louisiana.
Rubio plainly said Ozturk’s visa was revoked by the government.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus — we’re not going to give you a visa,” he said.
“If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa. And once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legally in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it’s just that simple,” Rubio said.
Last year, Ozturk was the co-author of an opinion piece in the Tufts Daily newspaper, demanding the university administration “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and disclose and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
She made no mention of Hamas in the op-ed, though a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
“She’s softspoken, she doesn’t want to hurt you when she’s talking,” her friend, Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University’s psychology department, told ABC News. “She makes sure that she doesn’t offend anyone, let alone possibly incite violence. I’ve never heard her swearing, believe me, this is the kind of person we’re talking about.”
The secretary said it was “crazy” and “stupid” for any country to issue visas to any individual who intends to be disruptive on college campuses.
“If you invite me into your home because you say, I want to come to your house for dinner and I go to your house and I start putting mud on your couch and spray painting your kitchen, I bet you you’re going to kick me out,” he said. “Well, we’re going to do the same thing if you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us.”
“We don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country, but you’re not going to do it in our country,” he said.
The mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, where Ozturk was approached and detained, said it appears the Tufts doctoral student was detained over the exercise of free speech.
“I am deeply concerned to see a student with legal status detained for what appears to be the exercise of free speech. Rumeysa Ozturk has a First Amendment right to free speech and a right to due process and that must be upheld, just as all immigration detainees have rights that must be respected without exception,” Mayor Katjana Ballantyne said in a statement.
“Our rights are being threatened in a variety of ways right now and Somerville will make use of the law and our voices to defend them. My administration recently filed a joint lawsuit with Chelsea against federal officials to do just that. We cannot sit by idly,” the mayor said.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly three weeks after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 200 alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador with little-to-no due process, a federal judge on Thursday is set to consider whether the Trump administration defied a court order by deporting the men.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg will consider what consequences the Trump administration should face if he deems that it willfully violated his March 15 orders that barred removals under the Alien Enemies Act and directed two flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members be returned to the United States.
Thursday’s hearing could present the most consequential face-off yet between the executive and judicial branches of government since Trump took office in January, as Trump attempts to unilaterally implement parts of his agenda amid a flood of litigation.
“I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do,” Trump said in a social media post last month after Judge Boasberg issued his order blocking the deportations.
Trump last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — 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 has 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.”
Lawyers representing the class of migrants covered by the president’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation have argued that the Trump administration violated the court’s “unequivocal oral order” to return to the U.S. two flights carrying alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador.
According to flight data reviewed by ABC News, both flights carrying the migrants had not yet landed when Judge Boasberg directed the flights be turned around, and Justice Department lawyers, when questioned by Judge Boasberg, confirmed that the directive was promptly communicated to federal officials overseeing the flights.
“Defendants admit they never attempted to return the individuals on the planes to the United States, despite having both notice and the ability to do so,” the attorneys argued.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice have insisted that the Trump administration “complied with the law” while questioning the legitimacy of Judge Boasberg’s order. According to the DOJ, Judge Boasberg’s oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and his subsequent written order lacked the necessary explanation to be enforced.
Lawyers with the ACLU and Democracy Forward Foundation responded that “The government’s arguments are also unsupportable on their own terms — as a matter of basic textual analysis, of common sense, and in view of foundational separation-of-powers principles.”
The Justice Department has also argued that the president acted within his authority when he removed the noncitizens — which the Trump administration has alleged are dangerous gang members — and that the government should not have to explain itself to the court because the matter concerns national security.
“Even without the challenged Proclamation, the President doubtlessly acts within his constitutional prerogative by declining to transport foreign terrorists into the country,” the Justice Department argued.
The Justice Department recently invoked the rarely-used state secrets privilege to avoid disclosing further details about the flights on the grounds that it could harm national security, so it’s unclear how DOJ attorneys will respond to Boasberg’s lines of inquiry.
