Immigration & Border Security

Feb. 26 (UPI) — In a court hearing Thursday, the Justice Department must convince a judge that it didn’t prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia as retaliation for fighting his deportation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire, based in Nashville, secured an indictment in 2025 against Abrego Garcia, who is undocumented and married to an American citizen, for human trafficking from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia had nine passengers in the vehicle, and he was not arrested or given a ticket for the stop.

The government alleges he was the driver in a human smuggling conspiracy, but only after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in April 2025. The government returned him in May after court rulings demanded it and McGuire got the indictment.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have argued that the prosecution is in retaliation for challenging his deportation. While vindictive prosecution is difficult to prove, U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw has signaled that he may agree with Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.

Crenshaw pointed to comments made by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Fox News interview the day Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States.

Blanche said that the Justice Department began its investigation into the traffic stop after the federal court in Maryland determined that it had no right to deport Abrego Garcia, The Washington Post said.

“What should we do as the Department of Justice when a judge is accusing us of doing something wrong?” Blanche said. “We have an obligation … to investigate it, and that’s exactly what we did.”

McGuire has said in court that he alone made the decision to prosecute Abrego Garcia, but messages between him and the DOJ have contradicted that claim, The Post reported.

Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh told McGuire in an April 27 message in the court filings that prosecuting Abrego Garcia should be considered a “top priority.”

“The only ‘independent’ decision Mr. McGuire made,” Abrego Garcia attorney Sean Hecker said in a Dec. 19 court filing, “was whether to acquiesce in [the Office of the Deputy Attorney General’s] directive to charge this case, or risk forfeiting his job as Acting U.S. Attorney — and perhaps his employment with the Department of Justice — for refusing to do the political bidding of an Executive Branch that is avowedly using prosecutorial power for ‘score settling.'”

McGuire has also argued that the reason he didn’t prosecute Abrego Garcia earlier is that he didn’t know about the traffic stop. But the judge disputed that claim.

“Cases do not magically appear on the desks of prosecutors,” Crenshaw wrote in October. “The motivations of the people who place the file on the prosecutor’s desk are highly relevant.”

On Thursday, McGuire and two agents from the Department of Homeland Security are expected to testify. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have tried to subpoena Blanche and Singh, but Crenshaw has said their testimony isn’t necessary.

Feb. 20 (UPI) — Most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump‘s handling of deporting undocumented immigrants, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday.

The poll of 2,600 people found that 58% disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue, while 62% oppose the tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The poll was taken Feb. 12-17, after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.

Broken down by political party, 95% of Democrats disapprove of Trump handling of immigration, while 16% of Republicans agree. The latter figure is up from 13% in October. Independents feel he’s gone too far by 63%, which is up from 54% in October.

Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped steadily over the past year, and is down by 10%. He gets higher numbers on his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, 47%.

Half of Americans support efforts to deport all undocumented immigrants, the poll showed. In October, a poll showed that 45% were in support of expanded ICE operations and 46% were opposed. Today, Americans opposed the expanded operations by 53% to 40%.

A large number — 77% — believe that a warrant from a judge is necessary to enter a person’s home, while 20% believe an administrative warrant is enough.

And though the administration says it is targeting “the worst of the worst,” about 33% of Americans surveyed believe that.

The Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll was conducted Feb. 12-17, 2026, among 2,589 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Feb. 14 (UPI) — Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are on administrative leave after investigators said evidence does not match their stories after one shot a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis.

The suspended agents’ names have not been released, and they might be fired and charged with crimes for allegedly lying about the circumstances leading up to the shooting on the night of Jan. 14 after investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota finish their review of the incident.

“A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” McLaughlin said in an email to Fox News Digital.

“Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation,” she said, while referring to the agents’ statements as “false.”

An ICE agent shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after he allegedly fled an attempted traffic stop and eventually exited his vehicle at an apartment complex.

The agent and Sosa-Celis were treated at a nearby hospital, and Sosa-Celis, Aljorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma were arrested.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss criminal charges filed against Julia Cesar Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, both of whom are Venezuelan and were accused of beating a pursuing ICE agent with a snow shovel and the handle of a broom.

The agents’ statements were “materially inconsistent” with evidence that recently was discovered, Rosen said.

A federal judge agreed and granted the motion to dismiss on Friday.