Immigration & Border Security

Sept. 6 (UPI) — South Korea might send a government official to Washington to resolve issues after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at an under-construction Hyundai battery plant in Georgia.

South Korean officials convened an emergency meeting following the Thursday raid by federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement, who arrested 457 “unlawful aliens” working at the electric vehicle battery plant in Bryan County, Ga.

About 300 are South Koreans, who were working at the plant run by the HL-GA Battery Co., which is jointly owned by South Korean firms Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd.

“We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,” South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said during the meeting.

“If necessary, I will personally travel to Washington to hold consultations with the U.S. administration,” Cho said.

Homeland Security Investigations said the raid was the largest in its history and occurred after investigating the plant for several months, NPR reported.

Most of those who were arrested are being held at a Folkston, Ga., detention center, many of whom have expired visas or entered the United States via a waiver program that does not allow them to work.

Officials with LG Energy Solution have suspended all the company’s business-related trips to the United States and have encouraged employees in the United States to either stay at their places of residence or return to South Korea.

Construction on the battery plant has stopped, and HL-GA Battery officials are cooperating with U.S. investigators.

Sept. 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the city of Boston, its Mayor Michelle Wu, the Boston Police Department and police commissioner over its so-called sanctuary city laws.

The Justice Department said in a press release Thursday that the practices in the Boston Trust Act, enacted in 2014, “interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of its immigration laws.”

The law allows Boston police to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only “on issues of significant public safety, such as human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes, while refraining from involvement in civil immigration enforcement,” the city said.

“The City of Boston and its mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “If Boston won’t protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.”

The Department of Justice said Boston’s law allows the “release of dangerous criminals from police custody who would otherwise be subject to removal, including illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, burglary, and drug and human trafficking, onto the streets.”

In a statement, Wu vowed to not back down and said the “unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise.”

“Boston is a thriving community, the economic and cultural hub of New England, and the safest major city in the country — but this administration is intent on attacking our community to advance their own authoritarian agenda,” she said. “This is our city, and we will vigorously defend our laws and the constitutional rights of cities, which have been repeatedly upheld in courts across the country. We will not yield.”

The Justice Department has filed similar suits against Los Angeles and New York City.

In July, a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Illinois, Cook County and Chicago over sanctuary laws.

On Aug. 13, Bondi sent a letter to Wu warning her that officials who obstruct federal immigration could face criminal charges or civil liability.

Wu responded on Aug. 19, citing the Chicago dismissal.

“Courts have consistently held, as recently as last month, that local public safety laws like the Boston Trust Act are valid exercises of local authority and fully consistent with federal law,” she wrote.

In August, a federal judge extended his preliminary injunction that blocks the Trump administration from withholding funds for 34 sanctuary jurisdictions.

Those cities include Boston, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.

Bondi in August published a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which she said “impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design.”

Sept. 4 (UPI) — A federal appeals court Thursday overturned a judge’s order to shut down Florida’s immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Department of Homeland Security officials.

The opinion issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to wind down operations at the South Florida Detention Facility at Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee.

Environmental groups led by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe sued over the construction of the facility in May, saying the government didn’t perform a required environmental review first. They cited a federal law called the National Environmental Policy Act, which says the government must conduct such reviews before construction.

In a 2-1 opinion, the Atlanta-based appellate court said the construction of the facility can’t be challenged under NEPA because the state of Florida runs the prison, not the federal government.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appealed the lower court’s August order based on these grounds. He praised the decision in a post on X accusing Williams of being a “leftist judge.”

“The mission continues at Alligator Alcatraz,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security called it a “huge victory.”

“Today’s order is a win for the American people, the rule of law and common sense,” the department posted on X.

Friends of the Everglades issued a statement on Facebook saying environmental groups intend to continue “fighting” the case.

“While disappointing, we never expected ultimate success to be easy,” said Eve Samples, executive director of the group. “We’re hopeful the preliminary injunction will be affirmed when it’s reviewed on its merits during the appeal.”

The South Florida Detention Facility was the first of multiple prisons opened by the Trump administration in recent months as part of the president’s pledge to mass deport immigrants. Since “Alligator Alcatraz’s” opening in July, the DHS has opened or announced a number of other facilities with alliterative nicknames, including the “Speedway Slammer” at the Miami Correctional Center in Indiana; the “Cornhusker Clink” at the Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb.;, the “Deportation Depot” at the Baker Correctional Institution in north Florida; and the “Louisiana Lockup” at Angola Prison.

Immigrants’ rights groups have taken issue with the federal-state partnerships to open large-scale detention facilities and the “political spectacle” associated with the nicknames.

“The new agreements mark a new chapter in the level and scale of cooperation” between federal and state governments on immigration enforcement, the Marshall Project said in a statement in August.

The organization accused the DHS of preventing detainees from meeting confidentially with lawyers at the South Florida Detention Facility. The Marshall Project also alleged the conditions were filthy at the facility and detainees were treated inhumanely, both of which the Trump administration denied.

The DHS said Thursday that the legal challenge to the construction of the facility was about immigration policy, not the environment.

“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility. It has and will always be about open-borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”

Sept. 4 (UPI) — A pair of drug seizures by Customs and Border Protection agents along the Texas-Mexico border has netted methamphetamine shipments with an estimated street value of $50 million, the agency announced on Thursday.

In the first and larger of the two, agents stopped a truck hauling aluminum burrs that was concealing $37 million worth of the drug through the Colombia-Solidarity cargo facility in Laredo.

“Physical inspection led to the discovery of four sacks of alleged methamphetamine with a combined weight of 4,241 pounds concealed within the shipment,” a release from CBP said.

In the other seizure, agents seized 488 packages of what they believed was methamphetamine with a street value of $13.2 million in a commercial truck hauling a load of broccoli at the Pharr international cargo facility in Pharr, Texas.

Nearly 1,500 pounds of the drug was concealed in the roof of the truck, CBP said.

The seizures are the latest in a series of drug stops along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

In June, agents seized a load of amphetamines valued at $6.7 billion being smuggled across the border at the Pharr crossing by someone in a stolen sports sedan.

“The cargo environment continues to be a top choice for trafficking organizations but our CBP officers, along with our tools and technology, are a force to be reckoned with,” Carlos Rodriguez, port director of the Pharr port said at the time.

Sept. 3 (UPI) — The federal government is opening a new immigration detention facility at Louisiana State Penitentiary, which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dubbed “Louisiana Lockup” in an announcement Wednesday.

She said the federal partnership with the state of Louisiana will include up to 416 beds at the facility also known as Angola Prison.

“If you come into this country and you victimize someone, if you take away their child forever, if you traffic drugs and kill our next generation of Americans, and if you traffic our children and men and women, absolutely there’s consequences,” Noem said during a news conference at the prison. “You’re going to end up here.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the prison was designed to hold “the worst of the worst.”

“Louisiana Lockup will give [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] the space it needs to lock up some of the worst criminal illegal aliens — murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers and gang members — so they can no longer threaten our families and communities,” he said in a news release.

The DHS release said the funding for the facility comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4.

The Louisiana immigration detention facility is one of multiple prisons opened by the Trump administration in recent months as part of the president’s pledge to mass deport immigrants.

The South Florida Detention Facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” opened at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Cypress National Preserve was opened July 1, but last month a federal judge ordered the government to wind down operations within 60 days.

The order came in response to a lawsuit by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity accusing the Trump administration of building the facility in violation of environmental laws, which require an environmental review before construction at the preserve.

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Five Republicans in the House joined Democrats Wednesday to block an effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., over a confrontation with immigration officers in her district.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., sponsored a resolution that would have condemned McIver’s actions in May and removed her from her position on the House Homeland Security Committee. The House voted 215-207 to table the measure, with Republican Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood of Nebraska, Dave Joyce and Mike Turner of Ohio, and David Valadao of California voting against the censure along with all Democrats. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, voted present.

Turner’s representative said he mistakenly voted against the resolution, which would not have changed the outcome of the vote, Politico reported.

McIver faces three federal charges for allegedly assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside the Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility in Newark, N.J., during a congressional visit on May 9. U.S. Attorney Alina Habra said McIver forcibly grabbed and slammed an agent with her forearm and struck a second agent.

The counts carry up to eight years in prison if she’s convicted. She pleaded not guilty to the charges during her arraignment in June.

Along with McIver at the oversight inspection were Newark Mayor Ray Baraka, and Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez of New Jersey. Authorities initially arrested Baraka but later dropped the charges against him.

Democrats have called the charges and censure politically motivated. McIver’s lawyers said she didn’t commit any crimes and was simply carrying out her duties as a member of Congress attempting to inspect the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility, but federal agents reacted recklessly and disproportionately.

Garbarino said he voted no on the censure because he believes the Ethics Committee should review the matter. Bacon agreed.

“I don’t support the censure of Rep. LaMonica McIver because I want the Ethics Committee to finish their report on this matter,” he said.

Higgins said McIver was to blame for him pushing the vote, according to Roll Call.

“Had she withdrawn from the Homeland Security Committee, I certainly wouldn’t have offered a resolution, even though censure [is] legitimate and called for,” he said.

Aug. 31 (UPI) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday confirmed the Trump administration plans to increase immigration resources in Chicago amid a planned federal crackdown on crime in the city.

In an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be expanding operations in Chicago to “go after the worst of the worst in the country, like President [Donald] Trump has told us to do.”

She said the agency would be “focusing on those that are perpetuating murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans across our country, knowing that every single citizen deserves to be safe.”

Noem’s comments come after weeks of Trump leveraging federal resources — namely the National Guard — to target crime in cities he deems unsafe. He deployed troops to Washington, D.C., in August to crack down on crime, which he described as “out of control.”

Speaking Aug. 11 about the deployment, Trump called out other cities with high crime, including Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., and New York City. He followed that up Saturday with a Truth Social post calling Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “weak and pathetic,” saying he should straighten out crime or “we’re coming.”

In response to Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order seeking to avoid militarization in the city. The order demands that Trump end “his threats to deploy the National Guard” to Chicago.

“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson said during a signing ceremony. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation … but unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”

In an appearance on Face the Nation, Pritzker said no one in the Trump administration has reach out to him or any other officials in Chicago about a possible deployment of National Guard troops to the city, which he described as “an invasion.” He said federal agencies should coordinate with local law enforcement.

“But they don’t want to do that either, and I must say, it’s disruptive, it’s dangerous,” Pritzker said. “It tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don’t let us know what their plans are, and when we can’t coordinate with them.”

He said if Trump does send National Guard troops to Chicago, he’ll take it to the courts.

“Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency,” he said. “There is not.”

Aug. 30 (UPI) — Two firefighters helping to fight a wildfire in Washington state were arrested this week by federal immigration officials, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed.

The two Mexican nationals were arrested and detained by federal agents around a mile from the frontline of the Bear Gulch wildfire in Olympic National Forest.

The blaze was first reported on July 6, has burned more than 9,200 acres and was 13% contained, according to the latest update from the Washington state fire officials.

The fire is currently the largest actively burning in Washington state.

Federal officials pulled aside 44 people to verify their identity this week, ultimately arresting the two men.

The fire’s Incident Management Team later said the arrests did not hinder firefighting capabilities.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests in a post on X, but said the two men were not frontline firefighters.

“The two contracted work crews questioned on the day of their arrests were not even assigned to actively fight the fire; they were there in a support role, cutting logs into firewood. The firefighting response remained uninterrupted the entire time,” the department said in the post.

“No active firefighters were even questioned, and U.S. Border Patrol’s actions did not prevent or interfere with any personnel actively engaged in firefighting efforts.”

The arrests come as President Donald Trump‘s administration continues its crackdown against illegal immigration.

“Deeply concerned about this situation with two individuals helping to fight fires in Washington state. I’ve directed my team to get more information about what happened,” Gov. Bob Ferguson, D-Wash., said in a post on X.

“Donald Trump ran his campaign on sending out the worst of the worst. I’m not sure who’s more the best of the best than our firefighters, actively fighting the largest fire in Washington,” Ferguson said in a separate post.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — A hotel in Epping Forest, England, can keep housing asylum seekers, an appeals court said Friday, overturning a lower court’s injunction.

The Bell Hotel in Epping Forest is housing about 140 migrants who seek asylum in the country, and the local council sought an injunction against them staying there after a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and a man living in the hotel was accused of the attack.

Protests near the hotel turned violent in July when they were hijacked by supporters of the far-right after asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a resident of the hotel, was charged in July with sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl.

Riot police, with helicopter backup, clashed with protesters in residential neighborhoods and at least 34 people were arrested, police officers injured and vehicles damaged.

On Aug. 20, Justice Stephen Eyre granted an injunction that would force the men out of the hotel, which is being funded by the British government. The injunction would have taken effect on Sept. 12.

Justices David Bean, Nicola Davies and Stephen Cobb said, “If an outbreak of protests enhances the case for a planning injunction, this runs the risk of acting as an impetus or incentive for further protests — some of which may be disorderly — around asylum accommodation. At its worst, if even unlawful protests are to be treated as relevant, there is a risk of encouraging further lawlessness. The [lower court] judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system.”

After the decision, the Home Office Minister Angela Eagle said the housing of asylum-seekers in hotels will end.

“We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions,” The Guardian reported Eagle said. “This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament, and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of [$12 million] a day.”

Kebatu is on remand [in pre-trial detention]. He denies the offenses he is charged with, which were alleged to have taken place just eight days after his arrival in the country, from Ethiopia via France, on a small boat. His trial is set to begin in the coming days.

Mohammed Sharwarq, a Syrian asylum seeker also living at the hotel, is facing seven unrelated charges and authorities have charged several other men over alleged involvement in unrest outside the Bell Hotel.

Lisa Foster, a lawyer representing Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel, said they are “pleased” with the ruling.

She added that the owners ask the public to “understand that the Bell Hotel has simply been providing a contracted service that the government requires.”

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration is winding down operations at its Florida Everglades detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” per a court order, with all detainees to be removed within days, according to reports.

Florida Division of Emergency Management head Kevin Guthrie wrote in a Friday email obtained by both The New York Times and ABC News, but reported on Wednesday, that the South Florida Detention Facility in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee will probably “be down to 0 individuals within a few days.”

The news organizations reported that the email was sent in response to interfaith leaders who had asked to minister to the facility’s detainees.

It’s unclear exactly how many detainees are held — and were held — at the detention facility rapidly constructed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport compound.

President Donald Trump has been channeling funds to expanded immigration detention capabilities nationwide as part of his pledge to mass deport immigrants, with several Republican-led states entering partnerships with the federal government to construct them.

Alligator Alcatraz opened July 1 and was met with Democratic opposition and lawsuits.

On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration and the state of Florida to essentially wind down operations at the facility within 60 days. No new detainees were allowed to be transferred to the site and much of it was ordered to be dismantled.

In her ruling, Judge Kathleen Williams sided with environmental groups who accused the state and federal governments of violating environmental protection laws, as no environmental review was performed before they started erecting the facility.

“There weren’t ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s process. There was no process. The defendants consulted no stakeholders or experts and did no evaluation of the environmental risks and alternatives from which the court may glean the likelihood that the agency would choose the same course if it had done a NEPA-compliant evaluation,” she wrote in her order, referring to the National Environmental Policy Act.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appealed the ruling.

Earlier this month, DeSantis, a Republican and a Trump ally, announced plans to open another detention facility, this one called “Deportation Depot.” It is to be housed in a shuttered state prison in North Florida.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran native who was deported despite a court order barring his removal, cannot be deported again until at least October.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said Wednesday that the Trump administration has been temporarily blocked from deporting Abrego Garcia until his latest challenge against deportation is resolved in court.

Abrego Garcia had been transferred to a detention center in Tennessee, where officials stated he possibly could be deported to Uganda, but he now has a hearing slated for Oct. 6 to challenge that.

Xinis said she’ll issue a ruling within 30 days of that hearing. She also ordered that custody of Abrego Garcia, who is currently being held in a detention center in Virginia, must remain within a 200-mile radius of the court in Maryland.

However, she further said she won’t order that Abrego Garcia be released from immigration custody, which she ruled should be decided by an immigration judge. His attorneys moved on Monday to reopen his immigration case and apply for his asylum.

Abrego Garcia was deported in March by the Trump administration on contentions that he was a member of the criminal MS-13 gang. He was sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, even though a 2019 court order was in place to bar deportation back to his native country due to fear of persecution.

He was returned to the United States in June to face allegations that he was transporting undocumented migrants while he lived in Maryland, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

His attorneys also stated his case should be reopened to allow Abrego Garcia to designate deportation to Costa Rica, should he be ruled for removal.

Aug. 23 (UPI) — A day after his release from custody, Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces the possibility of being deported to Uganda, lawyers for the El Salvadoran national said in a court filing Saturday.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers claim the federal government is pushing their client to accept a guilty plea in relation to human trafficking charges in Tennessee, or face deportation to the African nation. He was born in El Salvador, immigrated to the United States as a teenager around 2011 and violated a 2019 court order that protected him from deportation.

On Friday, a federal magistrate judge released Abrego Garcia from custody while he awaits trial for the Tennessee incident.

He was then immediately ordered to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Baltimore.

The judge ordered the federal government to give the 30-year-old at least 72 hours notice before undertaking deportation proceedings to give his lawyers a chance to file a legal challenge.

“Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday,” lawyers said in their court filing.

“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”

Abrego Garcia was initially deported to El Salvador this past March after federal officials accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang and illegally entered the United States in 2011.

The move came amid President Donald Trump‘s crackdown on illegal immigration across the country.

The Trump administration later admitted Abrego Garcia’s deportation was due to an administrative error.

He was later returned to the United States after his case became national news, leading people to advocate for his repatriation, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen Jr., D-Md. Abrego Garcia lives in Baltimore with his wife and children.

He has been held in custody since returning to the United States in relation to the 2022 human trafficking charges in Tennessee.

Federal officials have promised to deport him to Costa Rica in exchange for a guilty plea, but have said that offer will be rescinded shortly if Abrego Garcia doesn’t make a deal.

Aug. 23 (UPI) — A federal judge has extended his preliminary injunction that blocks the Trump administration from withholding funds for 34 sanctuary jurisdictions.

The “sanctuary cities” include Boston, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who serves in San Francisco, wrote in the 15-page ruling issued Friday night that the government offered to reason for the opposition to the preliminary injunction except it was “wrong in the first place.”

The judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, also blocked the Trump administration from imposing conditions on grants that are “for a variety of critical needs.”

On April 24, he issued a preliminary order that “the Cities and Counties are likely to succeed on the merits “because they were unconstitutional violations of the separation of powers and spending clause doctrines and violated the Fifth Amendment, Tenth Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act.”

His original injunction listed 16 plaintiffs that were mainly jurisdictions in western states, including San Francisco, Portland and San Diego, but on Aug. 5 expanded it to other cities that include Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles.

On Friday, he wrote that the executive orders by President Donald Trump were “coercive threat (and any actions agencies take to realize that threat, or additional Executive Orders the President issues to the same end) is unconstitutional, so I enjoined its effect. I do so against today for the protection of the new parties in this case.”

On the day Trump became president on Jan. 20, he signed an order that sanctuary cities “do not receive access to Federal funds.” The president a few weeks later ordered that federal funding shouldn’t “facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration.”

In May, the Department of Homeland Security publicly listed 500 cities, counties and states that hadn’t adhered to the interpretation of immigration laws. That list has since been removed.

Attorney General Palm Biondi also sent letters to jurisdictions last week, threatening them with legal recourse because they have “undermined” and “obstructed” federal forces.

The White House didn’t respond to inquiries from The Hill and CBS News on the latest judge’s order.

Sanctuary cities don’t assist federal personnel, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from apprehending those in the country illegally.

In those jurisdictions, law enforcement is limited from sharing information about a person’s immigration status and entering jails or courthouses for arrests or interviews with a warrant signed by a judge.

People are also protected from encounters in public places, including schools and healthcare facilities.

The massive spending bill, which was signed into law on July 4, increased funds for enforcement. ICE’s budget grew from $3.5 billion to $48.5 billion.

Deportation raids have increased in cities run by Democrats.

Several lawsuits have been filed, including one last week by 20 states over the DOJ tying crime victim grants to immigration enforcement.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A federal magistrate judge released El Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia from custody Friday while he awaits trial for alleged human trafficking in Tennessee.

U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered that Garcia would not have to remain in custody while awaiting to face federal criminal charge in June, He had bee returned from El Salvador after being deported there by mistake, the government said.

Garcia “is presently en route to his family in Maryland after being unlawfully arrested and deported and then imprisoned,” said Garcia’s attorney, Sean Hecker, as reported by The Guardian.

Hecker accused the Trump administration of engaging in a “vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law.”

Garcia, 30, was heading home to rejoin his wife and two children.

He is charged with federal crimes related to alleged human trafficking, which led to his return to the United States in June after the Justice Department pressed charges against him in Tennessee.

Federal prosecutors sought to keep Garcia in custody while awaiting his federal trial in Nashville.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. last month ruled the government did not show he is a danger to U.S. citizens or a flight risk.

“The government’s general statements about the crimes brought against Abrego, and the evidence it has in support of those crimes, do not prove Abrego’s dangerousness,” Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, said in a 37-page ruling.

His attorneys asked the court to keep Garcia in custody for 30 days after Trump administration officials said they would deport him again if he were released from custody. Holmes approved the request to prevent Garcia’s likely deportation.

A federal judge in Maryland has ordered Garcia to remain in the United States while awaiting trial, which might have negated his potential deportation.

Garcia was arrested and deported to El Salvador in March after prior court proceedings concluded that he likely is a member of the MS-13 gang and illegally entered the United States in 2011.

A federal immigration judge denied Garcia’s asylum claim in 2019, but ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he has said he fears persecution from a rival 18th Street Gang, which is active in the United States.

The Trump administration in January designated MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang as foreign terrorist organizations that pose a threat to the United States.

The Trump administration acknowledged Garcia was to be deported, but said an administrative error placed him on the deportation flight to El Salvador.

The El Salvadoran government placed Garcia in its Terrorism Confinement Center prison, commonly called CECOT, amid a crackdown on gangs in that country.

His lawyers claim he was psychologically and physically tortured while in the CECOT prison.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen Jr., D-Md., visited Garcia in El Salvador in a failed attempt to return him to the United States.

A subsequent Tennessee State Police video showed a November 2022 traffic stop near Nashville in which Garcia was pulled over for speeding and did not have a valid license.

Garcia had multiple passengers who were not U.S. citizens, which raised concerns of human trafficking and related violations.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Pew Research Center released on Thursday found that “unauthorized immigrants” in the United States hit a record high in 2023 of 14 million entering the country.

That 14 million included about 6 million who were protected from deportation via some other status, including victims of violent crime, Pew said in its report. These protections can be, and in some cases have been, removed by the federal government, sometimes with little notification.

The report only covers up to 2023, which is the latest year data were available.

The label “unauthorized immigrants” includes an array of statuses, including those who entered the United States illegally. The term groups together immigrants living in the country with impermanent, precarious statuses, Pew said.

The U.S. unauthorized immigrant population includes any immigrants who are not in these groups: Lawful permanent residents (green card holders), refugees formally admitted to the United States, people granted asylum, former unauthorized immigrants granted legal residence under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, naturalized U.S. citizens who entered under the prior four categoires as well as temporary legal residents under specific visa categories, such as those for foreign students, guest workers and intracompany transfers.

The report said that the rise in immigration came after the COVID-19 pandemic when U.S. immigration policy changed. Lawful admissions rose, as well as encounters between migrants and U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border

The 14 million number came after two years of record growth, according to a Pew estimate. The increase of 3.5 million in two years is the largest on record.

The number with temporary protections from deportations increased after 2021, following policy changes made by the President Joe Biden administration that allowed many immigrants to arrive in the U.S. with protected status and others to gain protection soon after arrival.

In 2023, unauthorized immigrants accounted for 27% of all U.S. immigrants, up from 22% in 2021. The group’s share of the U.S. population increased from 3.1% to 4.1%.

The six states with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations in 2023 were California with 2.3 million, Texas at 2.1 million, Florida with 1.6 million, 825,000 in New York, New Jersey with 600,000 and Illinois at 550,000.

These states have consistently had the most unauthorized immigrants since at least 1980. But in 2007, California had 1.2 million more unauthorized immigrants than Texas. Today, it has only about 200,000 more.

These populations grew in 32 states from 2021 to 2023. Florida saw the largest growth with an increase of 700,000, followed by Texas at 450,000, California with 425,000 and New York with an increase of 230,000.

Eight more states saw their unauthorized immigrant populations increase by 75,000 or more: New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio.

Aug. 20 (UPI) — U.S. border officials in Michigan stumbled on multiple discoveries of likely disease-ridden African bushmeat within a week’s time.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found two different passengers twice within a week in late July at Michigan’s Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Both the unidentified were from Togo and Gabon, respectively.

“These recent bushmeat interceptions are significant in bringing attention to the illegal importation of bushmeat through our ports of entry,” Detroit Metropolitan’s Port Director Fadia Pastilong said in a statement.

Bushmeat refers to wild animals often in the form of bats, non-human primates and cane rats from certain regions that, according to U.S. health officials, pose “significant communicable disease risk.”

The border agency pointed specifically to how the incidents showcase how it works with partner agencies to prevent disease outbreaks.

Border officials in Detroit added that while rodent-type bushmeat finds were sporadic as it is, the recently-located primate interceptions, they said, were “much rarer.”

“We routinely find various agriculture items and oddities,” stated Marty C. Raybon, Detroit’s director of field operations.

The Togan native from west Africa carried around 11 ponds of rodent meat. However, both travelers also had undeclared so-called “agriculture items.”

Raybon noted other similar finds include live giant snails, animal skulls and other “exotic food items.”

The unnamed traveler from central Africa in Gabon only two days later yielded some 52 pounds primate meat falsely declared as antelope.

Bushmeat is considered a cultural delicacy in parts of Africa and often consumed raw with minimal processing.

U.S. officials noted how the tradition also expands risk of disease spreading.

“Ebola, mpox, and other emerging diseases can have catastrophic consequences if they enter human populations,” they stated.

They added it’s also illegal to import bushmeat into the Untied States.

Last year in February a CBP K9 beagle agent named Buddey sniffed out dehydrated monkey remains from the Democratic Republic of Congo at Boston’s Logan Airport the traveler claimed was “dried fish.”

The illegal African bushmeat ultimately was turned over to CDC specialists for final disposition.

Meanwhile, the two unidentified African traveler were fined $300 each for the “undeclared agriculture items” in their attempt to bring their native “bushmeat” to U.S. shores.

Aug. 20 (UPI) — Defense attorneys for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration wrongly deported to El Salvador this spring and then brought human trafficking charges against him once he returned to the United States, are accusing the Justice Department of vindictively prosecuting their client.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s defense is asking the court to dismiss the charges brought against the 30-year-old Salvadoran national is punishment for him standing up to the Trump administration.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been singled out by the United States government. It is obvious why. And it is not because of the seriousness of his alleged conduct. Nor is it because he poses some unique threat to this country. Instead, Mr. Abrego was charged because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in the motion.

Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration as part of its mass deportation plans. Despite a court order prohibiting his removal, he was deported to El Salvador in March and incarcerated in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, where he said he was subjected to torture.

Abrego Garcia then challenged his removal in court, prompting the Trump administration to try and label him a gang member in public, while admitting in court it wrongly deported the immigrant.

He was returned to the United States in June, but only after he was charged with human smuggling by the Justice Department.

In the filing, his lawyers accused the Trump administration of conducting “a public campaign to punish Mr. Abrego for daring to fight back, culminating in the criminal investigation that led to the charges in this case.”

His lawyers point to comments from senior Trump administration officials, as well as President Donald Trump, calling him a criminal following his win in court that secured his return to the United States but before he was charged as proof of the White House’s vindictiveness.

“The government’s motive has been to paint Mr. Abrego as a criminal in order to punish him for challenging his removal, to avoid the embarrassment of accepting responsibility for its unlawful conduct and to shift public opinion around Mr. Abrego’s removal, including ‘mounting concerns’ with the government’s compliance with court orders,” they said in the filing.

The Justice Department’s case against Abrego Garcia stems from a November 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County, Tenn. Nine passengers were in the vehicle with him when stopped, but he was allowed to continue on his way, not even receiving a traffic ticket.

The government alleges he was the driver in a human smuggling conspiracy, and his defense argues that the Trump administration “has gone to extreme lengths” to make its criminal case.

His lawyers in the filing state that they have tried to secure the cooperation of multiple alleged conspirators who have already been sentenced to testify against Abrego Garcia, with its so-called star witness being a convicted leader of a human smuggling business with three felony convictions and who has been deported from the United States five times.

According to the filing, the Justice Department arranged for this alleged co-conspirator to be released early from a 30-month sentence to a halfway house to cooperate against Abrego Garcia, while relatives or those in relationship with this person also appear to be provided with “similar benefits” for providing corroborating testimony.

In the filing Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argue that nothing had changed in the three years since the traffic stop, except for the government wrongly deporting him to El Salvador and that he challenged his deportation.

“As a matter of timing, it is clear that it was that lawsuit — and its effects on the government — that prompted the government to re-evaluate the 2022 traffic stop and bring this case,” the filing states.

“[N]o similarly situated defendant — an alleged driver in an alien smuggling conspiracy — has ever had to wait two and a half years to be charged with a crime where the facts had not changed since the stop itself.”

His defense alleges that the only explanation for the timing of the charges is that the government has chosen to punish him for fighting his deportation.

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.

Aug. 16 (UPI) — The Trump administration won’t take control of the Washington police force, but more military personnel are being deployed to make the nation’s capital safer for residents, workers and visitors.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Saturday announced he is deploying between 300 and 400 of the state’s National Guard members to Washington to help “restore cleanliness and safety.”

“West Virginia is proud to stand with President [Donald] Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital,” Morrisey said.

He called the deployment a “show of cooperation to public safety and regional cooperation” that “aligns with our values of service and dedication to our communities.”

The W.V. National Guard will remain under the command of Adj. Gen. Maj. Jim Seward while deployed in the nation’s capital.

Morrisey’s deployment order comes after Justice Department and Washington police officials on Friday agreed the capital would maintain control of its police force of 3,200 officers.

U.S. Columbia District Judge Ana Reyes, during an emergency hearing on Friday, encouraged attorneys for the Justice Department and District of Columbia to negotiate a short-term agreement to temporarily stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from taking control of the city’s police force.

The resulting compromise agreement will continue while Reyes considers arguments made by the Justice Department and capital attorneys, who filed the federal case on Friday.

Reyes suggested Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump administration likely exceeded the authority that is provided by the 1973 Home Rule Act, which made Washington a self-governed federal district.

President Joe Biden appointed Reyes to the court in 2023.

“A hostile takeover of our police force is not going to happen,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said during a Friday news conference.

Capital Police Chief Pamela Smith “remains in control of the police department under the supervision of our mayor,” Schwalb said.

Bondi said the Justice Department will continue working with local officials to address concerns of criminal activity in Washington.

“We remain committed to working with Mayor [Muriel] Bowser, who is dedicated to ensuring the safety of residents, workers and visitors in Washington,” Bondi said.

Bondi on Thursday said an “emergency police commissioner” would approve the city’s Metropolitan Police Department policies and ensure the police force helps with federal law enforcement make immigration-related arrests, The Hill reported.

Bondi had appointed DEA Administrator Terrence Cole to oversee the Washington MPD, but his appointment is on hold and might not happen.

The Trump administration’s effort to police Washington’s streets and control its police force caused concern among many of its younger residents.

“I understand public safety is important, but they look more like they’re bullying us than being our community guardians,” a 16-year-old named Ali told NPR. “It’s hard not to feel intimidated.”

Another 16-year-old named Makayla blamed a relatively small group of juveniles for causing trouble that triggered the federal intervention in the capital.

“As a teenager, you want to go out and enjoy yourself,” she told NPR. “But all y’all want to do is fight.”

Trump cited juvenile crime as a tipping point in his decision to have his administration intervene in capital policing to make it safer for all for residents, workers and visitors.

Aug. 13 (UPI) — The U.S. State Department on Wednesday imposed visa restrictions on foreign government officials accused of assisting the Cuban regime in a scheme exploiting medical professionals.

Officials from several African nations, Cuba Grenada were sanctioned in a State Department news release. Then later Wednesday, several Brazilian government officials and former Pan American Health Organization officials were targeted for their work with Brazil’s More Doctors program. In all situations, their family members are also affected.

“We are committed to ending this practice,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X after the African and Grenadian officials were sanctioned. “Countries who are complicit in this exploitative practice should think twice.”

After Brazilians were named, Marco wrote on X: “Mais Médicos [Spanish for More Doctors] was an unconscionable diplomatic scam of foreign ‘medical missions.'”

Cuba is accused of sending the workers to some 50 countries for little or no pay for long hours, keeping their passports, confiscating medical credentials, and subjecting them to surveillance and curfews. Many of them reported being sexually abused by their supervisors. If they left the program, they faced repercussions.

Rubio said “several” African nations were sanctioned. Marco and the news release didn’t name that continent’s countries or the officials involved there, as well as Cuba and Grenada.

But the release about Brazil named: Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who worked in the nation’s Ministry of Health, played a role in planning and implementing the New Doctors program.

These officials used PAHO as an intermediary with the Cuban regime to implement the program “without following Brazilian constitutional requirements, dodging U.S. sanctions on Cuba, and knowingly paying the Cuban regime what was owed to Cuban medical workers,” according to the release.

In the described scheme, they were complicit with the Cuban government, in which medical professionals were “rented” by other countries at higher prices, with most of the revenue kept by the Cuban authorities, the State Department alleged.

They were involved in “depriving the Cubans of essential care,” the State Department said.

“The United States continues to engage governments, and will take action as needed, to bring an end to such forced labor,” the first release said. “We urge governments to pay the doctors directly for their services, not the regime slave masters.”

The federal agency urged governments to end this method of forced labor.

In June, the U.S. agency imposed visa restrictions on unspecified Central American government officials for being involved in the medical mission program.

Rubio at the time described a similar scheme in which “officials responsible for Cuban medical missions programs that include elements of forced labor and the exploitation of Cuban workers.”

In June, Havana’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the visa restrictions were “based on falsehoods and coercion.”

In late May, the State Department suspended the applications for J-1 visas, which allow people to come to the United States for exchange visitor programs. One week later, the department resumed visa interviews, but people seeking the visas were required to make their social media accounts public.

This year, more than 6,600 non-U.S. citizen doctors were accepted into residency programs, according to the National Resident Matching Program. Many residents go into underserved communities because they are less popular among U.S. applicants.

Medical professionals comprised 75% of Cuba’s exported workforce, generating $4.9 billion of its total $7 billion in 2022, according to the State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report.

“Traffickers exploit Cuban citizens in sex trafficking and forced labor in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Latin America and the United States,” the report said.”

Simultaneously, the U.S. government has fully restricted and limited people from 12 foreign countries in June. Cuba was among seven nations with restricted and limited entry.

“These restrictions distinguish between, but apply to both, the entry of immigrants and nonimmigrants,” the order states about the two designations,” a proclamation by President Donald Trump reads.

Trump issued the ban on nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Also partial restricted were those form Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.