In today’s newsletter: The Supreme Court tells the Trump administration to “facilitate” the release of a man wrongly deported to El Salvador. Six people died when a helicopter crashed into New York City’s Hudson River. And a descendant of Harriet Tubman speaks out after revisions were made to a federal website about the Underground Railroad. Here’s what to know today.
Supreme Court says Trump admin must ‘facilitate’ release of wrongly deported man
The Supreme Court said the Trump administration is required to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison, days after justices said the Trump administration didn’t need to meet a Monday night deadline to return him to the U.S.
Yesterday’s decision partly grants and partly rejects the Justice Department’s emergency request contending to a district court judge’s order that Abrego Garcia be retrieved from a prison where he was sent along with other men alleged to be members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. That means the Trump administration does not immediately have to try to return Abrego Garcia because a deadline imposed by the judge had already expired. But the administration “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
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The decision could give a boost to Venezuelans who were deported without due process before courts intervened.
Immigration officials allege Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally, is a member of the MS-13 gang but have conceded that he should not have been sent to El Salvador, calling it an “administrative error.” In 2019, an immigration judge ruled Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because there was “a clear probability of future persecution.”
Read the full story here.
More immigration coverage:
- A memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio cites Mahmoud Khalil’s beliefs in justifying the pro-Palestinian activist’s deportation. An immigration judge is expected to decide at a hearing today whether Khalil can be removed from the U.S.
- The Justice Department filed a motion to drop all charges against a Salvadoran man whom Attorney General Pam Bondi described two weeks ago as a top MS-13 gang leader.
- A requirement that everyone in the U.S. illegally must register with the government goes into effect today after a federal judge allowed the Trump administration to move forward with the new rule.
More politics news:
- Trump dodged a reporter’s question about a fall in the stock market but acknowledged his tariffs will pose “transition problems.”
- China has raised its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%, declaring that imports from America are no longer “commercially viable” in the latest trade war escalation between the world’s two biggest economies.
- Congressional Democrats are questioning whether Trump and his allies may have engaged in insider trading.
- Rep. Elise Stefanik was promised she could reclaim her spot on the House Intelligence Committee when Trump withdrew her nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two weeks later, tensions are bubbling as House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambles to figure out how to deliver on that promise.
- The Education Department’s inspector general’s office will review recent mass layoffs as Trump seeks to dismantle the department.
- Trump’s actions this week against Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has left some employees feeling like they’re under attack.
- The former head of British intelligence agency MI6 has some advice for Trump: If he wants the Nobel Peace Prize, he should hold off on negotiating a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
Spanish couple named as victims in fatal New York helicopter crash
New York authorities have named two of the six victims who died when a sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson on Thursday afternoon as Agustín Escobar and Merce Camprubi Montal, a married couple from Spain.
A spokesperson for City Hall said overnight that the couple were among the three adults and three children to have died in the accident. The names of the other victims have not yet been formally released.
The three children were believed to be the couple’s children and the third adult victim was the pilot.
Escobar was a senior executive with the German technology firm Siemens and was the CEO of rail infrastructure at its Siemens Mobility Division. Previously he was the CEO and president of Siemens Spain, according to a company announcement.
Calls to 911 operators rushed in at 3:17 p.m on Thursday as the sightseeing helicopter lost control shortly after it turned at the George Washington Bridge to move along the New Jersey shoreline.
Video showed the body of the helicopter plunging into the water, apparently having lost its propeller. Witnesses said they heard a loud sound, which one person described as possible engine failure, before they saw the helicopter go down. Here’s what else we know.
Ballerina imprisoned by Russia returns to the U.S.
Ksenia Karelina, a former ballerina who had been living in Los Angeles before she was arrested in Russia over a $51.80 charity donation, returned to the United States late Thursday after a prisoner exchange. Karelina was arrested in February 2024 and sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for “high treason” over allegations that she financially supported Ukraine’s military. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said she had been wrongfully detained.
Karelina was seen smiling as she exited the plane, which touched down last night at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., and she was embraced by people waiting for her outside the jet. Read more about the prisoner swap that allowed for her return.
The Maine high school at the center of Trump’s war on trans student athletes
When a state politician in Maine in February took to social media to complain about a transgender girl winning a pole vaulting event at a high school track meet, President Donald Trump and his administration took notice.
Now, Greely High School is at the center of a conflict over Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. The Trump administration has threatened to pull over $200 million in annual funding for Maine if the state does not comply by today with an executive order that effectively banned transgender students from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Outsiders see the showdown as an important test of how far the administration will go to force states to follow executive orders. Meanwhile, students and families at Greely, located in the suburbs of Portland, are anxiously awaiting their fate.
“We’re getting what feels like hatred from high-ranking people in the government, and it’s coming down on kids who don’t really have much power or say,” said a sophomore on the track team who supports transgender students’ right to compete. Read the full story here.
Read All About It
- A plane carrying at least six House members was clipped by another aircraft on the ground at Reagan National Airport.
- A federal indictment accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of dangling someone over a balcony in an allegation that is strikingly similar to an encounter alleged in separate lawsuits two women filed.
- Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he’s saddened by the popular website’s role in spreading a false viral rumor that an Ole Miss student said ruined her life.
- The wife of the bassist in Weezer who was shot by police is accused of firing at officers as they searched her Los Angeles neighborhood for hit-and-run suspects.
Staff Pick: Harriet Tubman’s descendant speaks out after website revisions
Rita Daniels has been dedicated to preserving the legacy of the famous conductor of the Underground Railroad: her great-great-great grandaunt, Harriet Tubman. So she was devastated to learn in February that the National Park Service drastically altered a webpage on Tubman and the Underground Railroad, watering down language around slavery and racism in America. “It tore me apart,” Daniels said exclusively to reporter Curtis Bunn.
The NPS has restored the original wording after public outrage, but the webpage was just one of thousands on federal websites that have either been removed or changed to cut anything that may be considered DEI. “My question is: Why do they want to erase our Black history?” Daniels asked. “Why are we such a threat to certain Americans?” — Michelle Garcia, NBC BLK editorial director
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