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Supreme Court Rules Wrongfully Deported Man Must Return To US

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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, aย Salvadoran national living in Maryland,ย from an El Salvador prison.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to the El Salvadoran mega-prison last month for being an allegedย MS-13 gang member,ย however, his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties. Garcia’s wrongful deportation has triggered an onslaught of criticisms from both sides of the aisle. (RELATED: IRS, DHS Reach Game-Changing Agreement For Trump Immigration Agenda)

The Supreme Court sided with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis who initially ordered federal officials to coordinate Garcia’s return back to Maryland in a Monday order, calling his deportation “wholly unlawful.”

Fox News reports:

“On March 15, 2025, the United States removed Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the United States to El Salvador, where he is currently detained in the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT),” the order states. “The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.” 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she “would have declined to intervene in this litigation and denied the application in full.”

“Nevertheless, I agree with the Courtโ€™s order that the proper remedy is to provide Abrego Garcia with all the processes to which he would have been entitled had he not been unlawfully removed to El Salvador,” Sotomayor wrote. “That means the Government must comply with its obligation to provide Abrego Garcia with โ€˜due process of law,โ€™ including notice and an opportunity to be heard, in any future proceedings.”

The Justice Department responded to the order in a statement to Fox News in a statement. 

“As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President to conduct foreign affairs,” the statement says. “By directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the Presidentโ€™s authority to conduct foreign policy.”

ICE Tracking App Maker Sues Over Trump Administration Pressure

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President Donald J. Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station Friday, April 5, 2019, in Calexico, Calif. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

The creator of ICEBlockโ€”an iPhone app designed to alert users to the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officersโ€”has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming federal officials violated his free-speech rights by urging Apple to pull the app from its store.

Joshua Aaron, the developer behind the app, contends in his complaint that building, distributing, and promoting ICEBlock is โ€œFirst Amendment-protected speech.โ€ He alleges that Attorney General Pam Bondi and other administration officials engaged in a coordinated โ€œpressure campaignโ€ to force Apple to remove the app, calling the effort an unlawful act of censorship.

โ€œWeโ€™re basically asking the court to set a precedent and affirm that ICEBlock is, in fact, First Amendment-protected speech and that I did nothing wrong by creating it,โ€ Aaron told The Associated Press on Monday. โ€œAnd to make sure that they canโ€™t do this same thing again in the future.โ€

The lawsuit also asks a federal judge to bar any criminal prosecution of Aaron, citing what he describes as โ€œunlawful threatsโ€ from Bondi, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons, and White House Border Czar Tom Homanโ€”all of whom, according to Aaron, indicated they would investigate him for creating the app.

He told the AP that one of his motives for suing is โ€œto basically have them stop threatening myself and my family.โ€

Why the App Was Removed

Apple removed ICEBlock and similar apps in October after Bondi publicly warned that the tools endangered federal immigration officers by allowing the publicโ€”including individuals seeking to evade law enforcementโ€”to monitor ICE activity in real time.

Bondi defended the removal in a Fox News interview, arguing that Aaronโ€™s app could compromise officer safety. โ€œHeโ€™s giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are. And he cannot do that,โ€ she said. โ€œAnd we are looking at it, we are looking at him, and he better watch out, because thatโ€™s not protected speech.โ€

Broader Context: Trumpโ€™s Immigration-Enforcement Strategy

The dispute comes amid the Trump administrationโ€™s continued efforts to restore aggressive federal enforcement of immigration lawโ€”an agenda that has been a central pillar of the presidentโ€™s policy platform. ICE has been directed to prioritize arrests of criminal offenders, expand cooperation with local law-enforcement agencies, and counter efforts by progressive โ€œsanctuaryโ€ jurisdictions to obstruct federal operations.

Officials like Noem, Homan, and Bondi have repeatedly emphasized the dangers facing ICE officers on the ground. From hostile sanctuary-city policies to the rapid spread of mobile apps that help individuals avoid lawful apprehension, the administration argues that these challenges make it more difficult to enforce immigration laws and protect communities.

Obama Appointee Blocks Trump Immigration Order

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This is far from over…

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration fromย revoking the legal statusย and work permits of the more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who flew into the United States during former President Joe Biden’s time in office.ย 

The migrants came to the U.S. under Biden’s controversial CHNV mass humanitarian parole program.

In her order, Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote that each migrant needs to have an individualized, case-by-case review.

“The Termination of Parole Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, 90 Fed. Reg. 13611 (Mar. 25, 2025), is hereby STAYED pending further court order insofar as it revokes, without case-by-case review, the previously granted parole and work authorization issued to noncitizens paroled into the UnitedStates pursuant to parole programs for noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (the “CHNV parole programs”) prior to the noncitizenโ€™s originally stated parole end date,” she wrote.ย 

Biden created the CHNV program in 2023 via his executive parole authority. The program was launched in 2022 and initially first applied to Venezuelans before it was expanded to additional countries.

The Biden administration argued that CHNV would help reduce illegal crossings at the southern border and allow better vetting of people entering the country amid an influx of migrants. 

The program was temporarily paused due to widespread fraud.

Officials with theย Department of Homeland Securityย and the Trump administration told Fox News that Talwani essentially ruled that Trump can’t use his own executive authority, the same authority Biden used, toย revoke the parole that Biden granted.ย 

“It is pure lawless tyranny,” a Trump administration official told Fox News. 

In March, the roughly 532,000 migrants under the CHNV program were told to leave the U.S.ย 

Border Wall Supplies Sold Off By Biden To Be Returned To Trumpย Admin

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Trump at the border wall via Wikimedia Commons

Sections of the U.S. border wall that had been auctioned off by the Biden administration will reportedly be returned to the Trump administration to support Trump’s “border protection plans.”

The Daily Wire previously reported that the Biden administrationย sold offย portions of the border wall in Arizona for pennies on the dollar in December, just one month before Trump reentered office in a move that critics called an attempt to hamstring the new administration. Now, those materials will be handed back over to the federal government.

GovPlanet, the government supply auctioning site that listed the border wall materials, says that it will expedite the return of the materials to the federal government, citing its support for the Trump administrationโ€™s border security plans.

โ€œGovPlanet has reached an agreement, working with the Office of the Border Czar, to return border wall materials that were previously deemed surplus and sourced by the federal government to GovPlanet via existing contracts,โ€ the company explained. โ€œWe are expediting the transfer of these materials to support the administrationโ€™s border protection plans.โ€

Construction continues on new border wall system project near Yuma, AZ. Recently constructed border wall near Yuma, Arizona on June 3, 2020. CBP photo by Jerry Glaser.

The sale of the border wall materials, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) told The Daily Wire, was an attempt by the Biden administration to hamstring the Trump administration.

โ€œThe Biden Administration is well aware they shouldnโ€™t have reversed the construction of the border wall. If itโ€™s true, theyโ€™re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president, it wouldnโ€™t be shocking,โ€ Crane charged. โ€œWhy would they want to see President Trump succeed with policies they aggressively sabotaged?โ€

The Republican Congressman from Arizona called the sale โ€œa direct affront to the will of the people,โ€ who had given President Trump a mandate to secure the border just a month before The Daily Wire broke the news of the auctions.

The materials will now be handed over to a firm that has been contracted by the government to build the wall, GovPlanet says. โ€œWe value our longstanding partnership with the U.S. government and look forward to continuing to support Americaโ€™s federal agencies,โ€ GovPlanet added. โ€œA third-party firm that has been contracted for construction of the border wall will take receipt of the materials over the next 90 days.โ€

GovPlanet also said that the supplies will be returned to the federal government โ€œat-costโ€ in order to โ€œprotect the millions of dollars that U.S. taxpayers had already invested in this initiative.โ€

First Judge Approves Trump’s Use Of Alien Enemies Act For Venezuelan Deportations

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Image via Pixabay

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines ruled that President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged illegal immigrant gang members complies with the law.

Haines, a Trump appointee with a background as a prosecutor in Pennsylvania, ruled that Trumpโ€™s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to deport Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members is legally valid, citing TdAโ€™s actions as a โ€œpredatory incursionโ€ under the law.

As The Hill reports:

Haines, a Trump appointee, emphasized her โ€œunflagging obligation is to apply the law as written.โ€ 

โ€œHaving done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will,โ€ Haines wrote in her 43-page ruling. 

The new split comes as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has filed a wave of lawsuits across the country challenging Trumpโ€™s use of the AEA, calls on the Supreme Court to immediately take up the issue and swiftly provide a nationwide resolution.

“The Alien Enemies Act โ€” historically invoked during wartime, including World War II โ€” empowers the president to detain or deport nationals of enemy nations. Trumpโ€™s application of the law targets TdA, a Venezuelan transnational gang designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization during his second administration, despite ongoing legal debate over whether gang activity constitutes an “invasion” or “incursion.”

Tuesday’s ruling contrasts with other federal judgesโ€™ decisions, such as Judge Fernando Rodriguezโ€™s May 1, 2025, injunction against the AEAโ€™s use, highlighting a judicial split that may lead to a Supreme Court challenge.

Stephen Miller Reportedly Sidelined By Trump Admin.

By The White House - https://www.flickr.com/photos/202101414@N05/54346096651/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=160407812

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller โ€” long viewed as one of the chief architects of President Donald Trumpโ€™s hardline immigration agenda โ€” is reportedly losing influence inside the administration as other top officials gain the presidentโ€™s ear.

According to a new report from The Atlantic journalists Michael Scherer and Nick Miroff, Trump has privately expressed concern that Millerโ€™s aggressive instincts sometimes go too far, marking a notable shift for one of the presidentโ€™s most loyal and powerful longtime advisers.

The report claims Trump โ€œhas also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far.โ€ The alleged change reportedly became more noticeable following unrest in Minneapolis and the death of protester Alex Pretti.

Trump reportedly โ€œrecognized immediately after the second killing in Minneapolis, of the protester Alex Pretti, that the policy needed to shift.โ€ Miller, however, took a far more confrontational tone, referring to Pretti as a โ€œdomestic terroristโ€ in the aftermath of the incident.

For years, Miller has been one of the most influential figures in Trumpโ€™s orbit. The former Senate aide rose to prominence during Trumpโ€™s first campaign in 2016 and quickly became the driving force behind many of the administrationโ€™s toughest immigration policies, including travel bans, refugee restrictions, and mass deportation proposals.

Unlike many Trump officials who cycled in and out of the administration, Miller built a uniquely durable relationship with the president. His fiery populist rhetoric and uncompromising stance on immigration made him a hero to many MAGA voters, while critics accused him of pushing excessively punitive policies.

But according to The Atlantic, recent months have revealed growing divisions within the administration over how aggressively to pursue Trumpโ€™s immigration crackdown.

The report states that Trump backed away from several Miller-backed initiatives after consulting with border czar Tom Homan and other officials. One major example involved a proposal to slash seasonal worker visas by 50%, a move that reportedly alarmed business interests and other administration figures.

โ€œThe new secretary is listening to Tom Homan and Rodney Scott before he is ever listening to Stephen Miller,โ€ one senior administration official told Scherer and Miroff.

Another former official summed up Millerโ€™s changing position bluntly: โ€œThe president knows who he is, period.โ€

The Atlantic also reported that while there have been no known clashes between Homan and Miller, the two men have promoted very different strategies for carrying out Trumpโ€™s mass-deportation agenda.

Miller has reportedly pushed for maximizing deportation numbers as quickly as possible, while Homan has favored a more targeted approach focused on illegal immigrants with criminal records.

โ€œThere have been no accounts of clashes or tension between Homan and Miller, and the former has even praised the latter as โ€˜one of the most brilliant people Iโ€™ve met in my entire life,โ€™โ€ the report noted.

Still, Homanโ€™s influence appears to be growing.

According to the report, the Department of Homeland Security has quietly reversed several changes Miller pushed earlier in Trumpโ€™s second term. One key example involved accelerated training for new ICE recruits.

Miller had reportedly advocated for shortening ICE academy training to roughly eight weeks in an effort to rapidly expand deportation operations. Veteran officers reportedly warned that the abbreviated training created serious concerns, especially as dropout rates surged among recruits.

โ€œIn recent weeks, ICE reverted to a four-and-a-half-month training program similar to its former academy course,โ€ the report stated, citing three officials familiar with the matter.

Despite the apparent shift, insiders told The Atlantic that Miller remains deeply embedded in Trumpโ€™s inner circle and is not expected to leave the administration anytime soon.

โ€œWhite House insiders said that Miller remains a top adviser to the president, that he has a singular relationship to Trump built over the past decade, and that his job is not in jeopardy,โ€ Scherer and Miroff reported.

The claims stand in stark contrast to earlier reporting that portrayed Miller as perhaps the single most influential policy figure in Trumpโ€™s second administration.

A bombshell report published by The New York Times in March suggested Miller had effectively become the driving force behind major Justice Department priorities.

โ€œIt was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department, current and former Trump aides said,โ€ the Times reported at the time.

Whether Millerโ€™s reported decline in influence proves temporary or permanent remains unclear. But the emerging picture suggests that even some of Trumpโ€™s most trusted allies are now competing for influence as the administration navigates mounting political and public pressure over immigration enforcement and domestic unrest.

Trump Administration Moves To Deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia – To Uganda

Gage Skidmore Flickr

New court filings reveal that the Trump administration is threatening to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda โ€” a move his attorneys describe as coercive. Abrego, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year, declined a plea deal tied to human smuggling charges. In response, prosecutors withdrew an offer that would have allowed him to enter Costa Rica โ€” a safe, Spanish-speaking country where he’d face no detention after serving time โ€” and instead pursued deportation to Uganda.

His attorneys argue immigration authorities are essentially offering a forced choice: accept guilt and a path to Costa Rica, or refuse and risk being sent to Uganda, where his safety โ€” and legal protections โ€” are uncertain at best.

As The Hill reports:

Federal prosecutors on Thursday offered Abrego Garcia the option to โ€œlive freelyโ€ with refugee or residency status in Costa Rica after serving prison time forย federal human smuggling chargesย in exchange for a guilty plea, per his lawyers in the Saturday filings.

Abrego Garcia, who wasย mistakenly deportedย to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador, declined the offer on Fridayย to instead returnย to his family in Maryland. He had been imprisoned in a Tennessee jail.

After his return to Maryland, Abrego Garciaโ€™s attorneys were notified later in the day that he must report to an Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) field office in Baltimore on Monday โ€” and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to deport him to Uganda.

โ€œThe only thing that happened between Thursdayโ€”Costa Ricaโ€”and Fridayโ€”Ugandaโ€” was Mr. Abregoโ€™s exercise of his legal entitlement to release under the Bail Reform Act and the Fifth Amendmentโ€ฆ,โ€ Abrego Garciaโ€™s defense team wrote.

Saturday’s revelations mark a significant escalation, as Uganda recently entered into a U.S. agreement to accept third-country deporteesโ€” but explicitly excluding individuals with criminal records or unaccompanied minors. Abregoโ€™s legal team contends that his criminal charges make such deportation both inappropriate and potentially dangerous.

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Report: Trump Admin Sends Over 100 Iranians Back To Tehran In Rare Deal

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By United States Government - https://x.com/PressSec/status/1882759560613527770, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=159931598

The Trump administration has reportedly deported a planeload of more than 100 Iranians under a deal struck with the Iranian government.

Iranian officials confirmed to The New York Times that the planeload of migrants took off from Louisiana on Monday night and was expected to arrive in Iran via Qatar on Tuesday. A U.S. official also reportedly confirmed the plan to the outlet.

Monday’s round of deportations is the first step in a larger plan to deport approximately 400 Iranian nationals.

“The Trump Administration is committed to fulfilling President Trumpโ€™s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation of illegal aliens in history, using all the tools at our disposal,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News on Tuesday.

The deal marks a rare instance of cooperation between Tehran and the US, which saw heightened tensions in the wake of this summer’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iranian officials told The Times that the deportation deal came about after months of discussions between the two nations.

The identities of the Iranian deportees are unknown, but The Times reported that the group included men and women, some of whom were couples. The outlet also noted, citing Iranian officials, that some of the deportees volunteered to leave the U.S. after spending time in detention centers, while others were not going voluntarily.

Iranian officials also told The Times that in almost every case, the deportees either had asylum requests denied or had yet to appear before a judge for a hearing on their requests.

“We have urged the American government to respect the rights of Iranian migrants and their citizenship rights under international law. They must not be denied consular services, fair judicial process, or the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Noushabadi told Tasnim news agency.

Another official told the news agency that the individuals being deported had left Iran legally, but how they entered the U.S. was “another matter.” For decades, the U.S. had granted refuge to Iranians fleeing political repression due to the regime’s reputation for brutal human rights abuses.

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Admin To Move Ahead With Ending Protected Status For Some Migrants

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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted an injunction against the Trump administration, allowing it to move ahead with its plans to end protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants in the U.S.

The decision is a victory for the Trump administration, allowing it to move forward with its plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the U.S. through parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. 

The TPS program provides legal status and work permits for these individuals.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Trump Administration Delivers Historic Border Security Win โ€” Lowest Apprehensions Since 1970

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Trump at the border wall via Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration has closed fiscal year 2025 with a historic milestone on border security โ€” the lowest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions in more than five decades, according to preliminary enforcement data released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Border agents recorded 237,565 apprehensions in fiscal year 2025 โ€” slightly above the 201,780 apprehensions in 1970 but dramatically below recent levels. The numbers represent an 87% drop compared to the average of the past four fiscal years (1.86 million apprehensions) and showcase what can happen when the federal government finally enforces immigration laws.

This achievement came even though 72% of this yearโ€™s total apprehensions happened during the final 111 days of the Biden administration โ€” before President Trump returned to office and immediately began reversing his predecessorโ€™s โ€œopen-borderโ€ policies.

โ€œFiscal year 2025 shows what happens when we enforce the law without compromise,โ€ said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. โ€œFor too long, agents and officers were handcuffed by failed policies. Today they are empowered to do their jobs โ€” and the result is the most secure border in modern history.โ€


Reversing Bidenโ€™s Border Chaos

When President Trump took office in January 2025, he inherited what many described as a border crisis fueled by Bidenโ€™s mass-release policies. In just the first 111 days of the fiscal year, under Bidenโ€™s watch, 172,026 apprehensions occurred โ€” nearly three-quarters of the yearโ€™s total.

But once Trumpโ€™s immigration directives took effect, the situation changed dramatically. Over the next 254 days, apprehensions plummeted to 65,539 โ€” just 27% of the fiscal yearโ€™s total.

September 2025 alone saw only about 279 apprehensions per day along the Southwest border โ€” a staggering 95% decline compared to the Biden-era daily average of 5,110. It also marked the fifth consecutive month of zero illegal immigrant releases by Border Patrol โ€” a stark contrast to 9,144 releases in September 2024.

Across all entry points, CBP recorded roughly 26,000 total encounters in September, down 89% from Bidenโ€™s monthly averages.


Strong Action From Day One

President Trump wasted no time taking decisive action to reestablish border control:

  • Deployed additional personnel to the southern border.
  • Ended โ€œcatch-and-releaseโ€, ensuring illegal migrants are no longer released while awaiting hearings.
  • Shut down Bidenโ€™s CBP One app parole loophole, later repurposing the app to help migrants self-deport.
  • Paused parole programs and authorized ICE to cancel parole statuses.
  • Ordered strict enforcement of existing immigration laws, restoring morale and authority to frontline border agents.

These policies stand in sharp contrast to Bidenโ€™s approach, which relied on controversial โ€œparoleโ€ programs and insisted on new legislation instead of acting on existing laws.