Ábrego García: Why the White House blinked

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Finally, a "win for the rule of law," said the New York Daily News in an editorial. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland father of three who was shipped to a prison in his native El Salvador in March, is now back on U.S. soil. The undocumented migrant's deportation was clearly illegal: A 2019 court order barred his removal to El Salvador due to fear of persecution. But for three months, the Trump administration defied judicial orders to "facilitate" Ábrego García's return—including one from the Supreme Court—coyly claiming the U.S. was powerless to interfere in El Salvador's custodial system. It eventually backed down amid warnings of a constitutional crisis. "But this being the Trump administration," Ábrego García, 29, is not a free man. Instead, he is suddenly facing multiple federal charges over allegations that he "unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens" across the U.S. as a member of the street gang MS-13. "Whether the indictment is solid or not, Ábrego García will now have competent legal defense and will be before independent judges." He will have all the protections that are due to him under the Constitution, protections he lost during his "disappearance" to El Salvador.
This is "not the homecoming Ábrego García hoped for," said Jonathan Turley in FoxNews.com. If convicted on these serious charges, which include accusations that he smuggled guns and narcotics, he will face life in prison. As for the administration, it's ended this controversy "on its own terms": neither defying the courts nor conceding limits on its power to deport. Democrats, meanwhile, have committed "a historic political blunder," said Peter Laffin in the Washington Examiner. They spent months insisting Ábrego García was a model citizen swept up in Trump's "supposedly racist deportation scheme." But during his trial, prosecutors will detail his alleged trafficking of women and children and how his wife repeatedly accused him of domestic violence. Each "hideous new detail" will remind voters of his "beatification" by "the party of open borders."
That assumes the government is "telling the truth about Ábrego García," said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate, and "there are reasons to be skeptical." If prosecutors had proof of criminal wrongdoing, why didn't they reveal it back in March and spare themselves months of scandal? More to the point, why wasn't he arrested in 2022? Most of the trafficking charges in the indictment stem from an incident that year in Tennessee, when cops found Ábrego García driving an SUV with nine male Hispanic passengers. (Ábrego García said he was headed to a construction site). He wasn't detained that day, let alone charged, and Bondi will have to explain what's changed since then, other than Trump's election, and "his suddenly urgent desire to find a justification for his blatantly unlawful rendition program."
Some Democrats did go overboard trying "to portray Ábrego García as sympathetic," said Jason Willick in The Washington Post. But "this story was never about a particular migrant's character." It's about whether the president can "send people from U.S. soil to foreign prisons and hold them there even when courts say it is illegal." That question remains terrifyingly unresolved, said Ilya Somin in Reason. Ábrego García's return proves the administration is not yet entirely resistant to judicial and public pressure. But Trump has deported "hundreds of other migrants" without due process. It's now up to the courts—" and the rest of us"—to push for their return, and "ensure that such a thing can never happen again."

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Hamilton Spectator

19 minutes ago

• Hamilton Spectator

After a senator's posts about the Minnesota shootings, his incensed colleagues refused to let it go

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Lee has in recent years become one of the Senate's most prolific social media posters, his presence seen in thousands of posts, often late at night, about politics. Fellow senators have grown accustomed to the Utah Republican's pugnacious online persona, mostly brushing it off in the name of collegiality. That is, until this past week. His posts, after the June 14 fatal shooting of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, incensed Lee's colleagues, particularly senators who were friends with the victims. It all added to the charged atmosphere in the Capitol as lawmakers once more confronted political violence in America. As the Senate convened for the week, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., marched past a crowd of reporters and headed toward the Senate floor: 'I can't talk right now, I have to go find Sen. Lee.' Smith, whose name was listed in the suspected shooter's notebooks recovered by law enforcement officials, spoke to Lee for several minutes. The next day, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did the same. By midday Tuesday, Lee had deleted his tweets. 'I would say he seemed surprised to be confronted,' Smith later told reporters. The shooting unfolds On the morning of June 14, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., announced that former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, had been shot and killed in their home outside Minneapolis. Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were critically injured, in a shooting at their home nearby. The next day, as police searched for the shooter, Lee posted a photo of the alleged shooter with the caption 'Nightmare on Waltz street' — an apparent misspelled attempt to shift blame toward Walz, who was his party's vice presidential nominee in 2024. In a separate post on his personal account, @BasedMikeLee, the senator shared photos of the alleged suspect alongside the caption: 'this is what happens When Marxists don't get their way.' On his official Senate social media account, Lee was 'condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.' A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment. The man arrested, Vance Luther Boelter, 57, held deeply religious and politically conservative views. After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Walz. Boelter has been charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder. Lee's online posts draw bipartisan backlash Once a critic of Donald Trump, Lee has since become one of the president's most loyal allies. Lee's online persona is well established, but this year it has become especially prominent: a Salt Lake Tribune analysis found that in the first three months of 2025, Lee averaged nearly 100 posts per day on X. What was different this time was the backlash came not just from Democrats. To Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Lee's posts were 'insensitive, to say the least, inappropriate, for sure' and 'not even true.' 'I just think whenever you rush to a judgment like this, when your political instincts kick in during a tragedy, you probably should realign some priorities,' Cramer said. Republican state Rep. Nolan West wrote on social media that his respect for Lee had been 'rescinded.' A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not respond to a request for comment. Last Monday night, after Smith's confrontation with Lee, a senior member of her staff sent a pointed message to Lee's office. 'It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you've caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend,' wrote Ed Shelleby, Smith's deputy chief of staff. He added, 'I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings.' Lee avoided reporters for much of the week, though he did tell them he had deleted the posts after a 'quick' discussion with Klobuchar. Lee has not apologized publicly. 'We had a good discussion, and I'm very glad he took it down,' Klobuchar said at a news conference. Tragedy prompts reflection in Congress The uproar came at a tense time for the Senate, which fashions itself as a political institution that values decorum and respect. Senators are under intense pressure to react to the Trump administration's fast-paced agenda and multiple global conflicts. Republicans are in high-stakes negotiations over the party's tax and spending cuts plan. Democrats are anxious about how to confront the administration, especially after federal agents briefly detained Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., at a recent Department of Homeland Security news conference in California. Lawmakers believe it's time to lower the temperature. 'I don't know why Mike took the comments down, but it was the right thing to do,' said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. 'I appreciate my Republican colleagues who were very clear with their observations. And those that spoke up, I want to commend them.' He added: 'We just all have to talk to each other. And what I learned from this week is people need to lean on each other more, and just get to know each other more as well.' ___ Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? 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USA Today

25 minutes ago

• USA Today

Two days of terror: How the Minnesota shooter evaded police and got caught

NEW HOPE, Minnesota, June 21 (Reuters) - Vance Boelter's disguise wasn't perfect. The silicone mask was somewhat loose-fitting and his SUV's license plate simply read "POLICE" in black letters. But it was good enough on a poorly lit suburban street in the dead of night. At 2:36 a.m. on Saturday, 30 minutes after authorities say Boelter shot and seriously injured Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, he paused behind the wheel of the SUV near the home of another senator, Ann Rest, in the city of New Hope. The SUV was stocked with weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, as well as fliers advertising a local anti-Trump rally scheduled for later Saturday and a written list of names of people he appeared to be targeting. Senator Rest, prosecutors would later say, was among those Boelter set out to kill on June 14. As Boelter sat in the SUV down the street from Rest's home, another police car - this one an actual police car - approached. A female officer from the New Hope police department, after hearing about the Hoffman shootings, had come out to check on Rest. Seeing the SUV, complete with flashing lights and police-style decals, she believed the man inside was a fellow officer. But when she attempted to speak to him - one officer greeting another - she got no response. Instead, the man inside the SUV with police markings simply stared ahead. The New Hope officer drove on, deciding to go ahead and check on Rest. Rest would later say the New Hope officer's initiative probably saved her life, an opinion shared by New Hope Police Chief Timothy Hoyt. "With limited information, she went up there on her own to check on the welfare of our senator," Hoyt told Reuters. "She did the right thing." The brief interaction in New Hope underscored the carefully planned nature of Boelter's pre-dawn rampage and how his impersonation of a police officer, including body armor, a badge and a tactical vest, confounded the initial attempts to stop him. After the encounter with the New Hope officer, Boelter, 57, drove away from the scene, moving on to his next target. Police would pursue him for another 43 hours. In the process, they would draw in a phalanx of state and federal agencies, in what ranks as the largest manhunt in Minnesota history and added to the sense of disorientation in a nation already grappling with protests over immigration, the forcible removal of a U.S. Senator from a press conference and a rare military parade in Washington. Federal prosecutors say they may seek the death penalty for Boelter, who has been charged with murdering two people and trying to kill two others, in what Governor Tim Walz has called a "politically motivated" attack. Prosecutors said they are still investigating the motive and whether any others were involved. Boelter has yet to enter a plea. Manny Atwal, a public defender representing Boelter, said he was reviewing the case and declined to comment. This reconstruction of the manhunt is based on court documents, statements by law enforcement officials, and interviews with a Boelter friend, local police officers, lawmakers, and residents of the impacted neighborhoods. While the events unfolded like something out of a TV crime drama, there were parallels with past shooting sprees, criminal justice experts said. James Fitzgerald, a former FBI criminal profiler, said he would not be surprised if Boelter studied a mass shooting in Canada in 2020, when a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in the province of Nova Scotia. "These guys always do research beforehand. They want to see how other killers were successful, how they got caught," said Fitzgerald, who helped the FBI capture the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski in 1996. "And, of course, a way you're going to buy yourself some time is to pose as a police officer." Hoffman Shooting The violence began at the Hoffman's brick split-level home in Champlin, a leafy, middle-class suburb of Minneapolis. With his emergency lights flashing, Boelter pulled into the driveway just after 2:00 a.m. and knocked on the door. "This is the police. Open the door," Boelter shouted repeatedly, according to an FBI affidavit. Senator Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, soon determined Boelter was not a real police officer. Boelter shot Senator Hoffman nine times, and then fired on Yvette, who shielded her daughter from being hit. As Boelter fled the scene, the daughter called 911. The Hoffmans were on a target list of more than 45 federal and state elected officials in Minnesota, all Democrats, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson told a briefing on Monday. Boelter voted for President Donald Trump, was a Christian and did not like abortion, according to his part-time roommate, David Carlson. Carlson said Boelter did not seem angry about politics. Thompson said Boelter "stalked his victims like prey" but that the writings he left behind did not point to a coherent motive. "His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," he said. "His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," Thompson said. After the Hoffman's, the next address plugged into Boelter's GPS system was a lawmaker about 9 miles away in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove. Surveillance cameras from the home of State Representative Kristin Bahner show a masked Boelter ringing the doorbell at 2:24 a.m. and shouting "Open the door. This is the police. We have a warrant," the FBI affidavit says. Bahner and her family were not at home. From there, Boelter moved on to New Hope and the close encounter with the officer who had dispatched to Rest's home. After that, he wasn't seen by police again until he arrived at the residence of Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the state House, in Brooklyn Park. Sensing that Hortman might be a target, Brooklyn Park police officers had decided to check on her. When they arrived at 3:30 a.m. they saw a black Ford Explorer outside her house, its police-style lights flashing. Boelter was near the front door. When Boelter saw the officers exit their squad car, he fired at them. He then ran through the front door on the house, where he killed Melissa and Mark Hortman, her husband. When Boelter left the Hortman's home, he abandoned his fake-police SUV. Inside the car, police found a 9mm handgun, three AK-47 assault rifles, fliers advertising a local anti-Trump "No Kings" rally and a notebook with names of people who appear to have been targets, according to court documents. From that point, Boelter was on the run. Little has been revealed about his movements during the period, although police say he visited his part-time residence in north Minneapolis. He also sent texts. In one, to his family's group chat, Boelter writes, "Dad went to war last night". In another, to a close friend, Boelter says he may be dead soon. Police also know that by early morning on Saturday Boelter had met a man at a Minneapolis bus stop who agreed to sell him an e-bike and a Buick sedan for $900. The two drove to a bank where Boelter withdrew $2,200 from his account. A security camera shows Boelter wearing a cowboy hat. But it took until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday for authorities to close in. Police searching the area near Boelter's family home in the rural community of Green Isle, discovered the abandoned Buick, along with a cowboy hat and handwritten letter to the FBI in which Boelter admitted to the shootings, prosecutors said. Law enforcement scrambled to set up a perimeter surrounding the area, SWAT teams and search dogs were deployed, and drones were put in the air. It was the trail camera of a resident, however, that provided the final clue, capturing an image of Boelter around 7:00 p.m., allowing officers to narrow their search. Two hours later, the pursuit ended with Boelter crawling to police. He was armed but surrendered without a fight. (reporting by Nathan Layne and Tom Polansek in Minneapolis and Joseph Ax in New York; editing by Paul Thomasch and Nick Zieminski)

Yahoo

29 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Late Night TV Hosts on Trump's 'Big Stupid Birthday Parade': 'Almost Makes Me Feel Bad for Him'

If we're being charitable, Donald Trump's military parade on Saturday was extremely underwhelming. So it was easy pickings for late night comedians, who took great delight in finding yet another thing to clown the president about. Amid grim news at home and abroad — including ICE raids, soldiers on the streets of Los Angeles, the Israel-Iran conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza — Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Jon Stewart took the chance for a small bit of joy at Trump's misery attending his poorly attended parade and compared the event to the millions who marched at Saturday's 'No Kings' protests that were held across the U.S. More from The Hollywood Reporter Trump Family Announces Launch of New Mobile Phone Service 'Daily Show' Staffer on Triumph at Pedro Pascal Lookalike Contest: "It's Been Insane" (Exclusive) Sandra Oh Urges Dartmouth Graduates to Dance in "Destabilizing Times" as She Talks DEI and 'Grey's' Changes She Fought For On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, host Kimmel dove straight into the parade at the top of his monologue. The parade, which was ostensibly to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army but also happened to land on Trump's birthday, was a layup for Kimmel, who described the event as a 'G.I. Joe-themed birthday party. 'After all the hype and money, and somewhere around $50 million, it was boring,' said Kimmel. 'It was basically a $50 million version of when a 5-year-old shows you every car in his Hot Wheels collection.' Kimmel added, 'We paid for most of it. But he brought in some corporate sponsors, including the UFC, a crypto company and Scott's Miracle Grow — which is the product Trump uses on his head. There were flyovers. There were combovers.' After showing a clip of Trump falling asleep during the parade, Kimmel said, 'There's Sleepy Don taking it all in. And in fairness, that's as close as he gets to be able to sleep with his wife, so he took the opportunity.' Lining up another clip of Trump and first lady Melania Trump's cold body language at the parade that saw them awkwardly try to hold hands, Kimmel added, 'This almost makes me feel bad for him, almost. So it's his birthday, and well, there's no good reason for us to be paying to celebrate it, you'd think his wife might celebrate it, right? They're married and well, watch this, look at his hand as he makes a little move to lock pinkies and … uh, nope! That's known as the 'Slovenian snub.'' A jubilant Colbert also gleefully dunked on the president on The Late Show. 'I am in agreat mood tonight because this weekend was Father's Day and Daddy got just what he wanted — no one came to Trump's big stupid birthday parade.' Colbert cited White House claims that 250,000 people turned up in Washington, D.C., for the parade, and countered with plenty of photos and video evidence that showed the opposite: 'Apparently, a quarter of a million people looks like this. They must be really good at hide and seek. MAGA stands for 'Make America Grass Again,' I guess.' Colbert, like Kimmel, zeroed in on Trump's body language during the parade. 'It looked like nobody was having a good time at this thing, not even Donald Trump,' Colbert said, describing the glum-looking president as 'one sad sack of potatoes.' He added, 'It was such a long day that the birthday boy seemed to fall asleep during the fireworks.' Along with Trump's latest grift with Trump Mobile, Meyers talked at length about the president's parade during his 'Closer Look' segment on Late Night. 'I'll tell you why this cheered me up,' Meyers said as he focused on a picture of Trump looking miserable. 'Because this image right here, this is the essence of America. You can be the president of the United States. You can have an entire political party and a global media apparatus at your disposal. You can cow the media and the wealthy into obedience. You can command an army and deploy troops and have unlimited wealth and power. But you still can't force people to come to your fucking birthday party. And what is more American than that?' The usually apolitical Fallon also didn't miss the opportunity to dunk on the president on The Tonight Show. 'Seriously, it looked like even Trump was bored by his own parade. You know it's bad when the person who looks most happy to be there is Melania.' Fallon joked, 'The White House is now claiming that over 250,000 people attended the parade. Yeah, it was an estimate, give or take 250,000.' On The Daily Show, Stewart only devoted a few minutes to Trump's parade, revealing that they originally had more jokes but other terrible events, including the worsening situation in the Middle East, the shocking assassination of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and sickening behavior of 'edgelord' Utah Sen. Mike Lee changed things. 'We were going to come out here [and talk about little Kim Jong Trump and his big military parade/quinceañera and how it meant that we all live in North Korea now,' said Stewart. 'And all the hyperbole of this massive display of American military power really butted up against what the parade actually was, which was this,' said Stewart as a clip of the now infamous squeaky tank played onscreen. 'Was that tank squeaking?' asked an incredulous Stewart. 'We have a trillion-dollar budget for the military. Nobody's got WD-40? Nobody?' Added Stewart, 'This was less a show of overwhelming force and more like a military museum getting in its steps.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise