Trump’s deportation agenda takes center stage: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we explore how President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts are under pressure in a variety of ways. Plus, Steve Kornacki explores the history looming over former Vice President Kamala Harris’ potential political comeback.

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— Adam Wollner

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Trump’s deportation agenda takes center stage

President Donald Trump and the GOP are facing renewed pressure from the courts, Democrats and members of the public over the U.S. government mistakenly deporting a Maryland man to a prison in El Salvador. 

Here are the latest developments: 

In the courts: The judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case suggested she was weighing contempt proceedings against the Trump administration, Gary Grumbach and Dareh Gregorian report. 

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to provide evidence about what steps it’s taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, as she had ordered, saying the government had shown her “nothing” to date.

Democrats’ plan of action: Democratic lawmakers say they are willing to go to El Salvador to seek Abrego Garcia’s release, a plan that has gained steam after the country’s president said during a visit to the White House on Monday that he would not send the man back to the U.S., Megan Lebowitz and Frank Thorp V report.  

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sent a letter Monday to El Salvador’s ambassador in the U.S. requesting a meeting with the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, who said in meeting with Trump later in the day that he “of course” would not send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.

Van Hollen said if Abrego Garcia was not in the U.S. by “midweek,” he would “travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release.” 

The idea gained support from several Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida and Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, who said they would be willing to join Van Hollen on the trip. 

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, also sought to dial up the pressure on Republicans. 

“Now is the time for my Republican colleagues to step up,” he said in a statement. “You can no longer stay silent in the face of a constitutional crisis. You must join Democrats in responding to this madness and demanding that Mr. Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States immediately.”

Town hall heat: GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley faced pushback at a town hall in southeastern Iowa over Abrego Garcia’s deportation, Kate Santaliz reports. 

Attendees started shouting “due process!” at Grassley after he said that he would not bring Abrego Garcia back because that’s “not a power of Congress.” After more shouting, Grassley placed the blame on El Salvador’s president, saying he is “not subject to our Supreme Court.” 

Zooming out: Trump administration officials are pushing immigrants to leave the United States of their own volition, or “self deport,” as the number of people the government is deporting from the interior of the country remains stagnant, far below the vision for mass deportations promised by the president, Julia Ainsley reports. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported just over 12,300 immigrants from March 1 to March 28, slightly under the 12,700 people it deported during the same period last year, according to ICE data obtained by NBC News. ICE deported around 11,000 people in February.  

More on Trump’s immigration agenda:

The hurdles Kamala Harris faces in a potential comeback attempt

By Steve Kornacki

The possibility that Kamala Harris might seek a quick comeback in next year’s California governor’s race continues to be raised.

Since leaving office, Harris’ camp has signaled interest in a potential candidacy. Two weeks ago, the former vice president used a speech in her home state to declare, “I’m not going anywhere.” And recent polls suggest the state’s Democratic voters retain broadly positive feelings toward her. 

Harris’ ultimate decision is a key variable for national Democrats, since she would also be a logical candidate for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination. On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Cory Booker, a potential presidential candidate himself, sidestepped questions about another Harris White House bid.

Between the two options, the California governorship seems the obviously more attainable goal for Harris, given her familiarity to voters and the state’s overwhelming Democratic bent. Among Democratic voters, polls show she’d be the top choice for now, but the field is still forming and name recognition is a major factor. 

The state’s open primary system adds another variable. Candidates all run on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election. That raises the possibility that, if Harris advanced to a general election for California governor, she might have to face a fellow Democrat. 

In theory, that could be a concern against a candidate like Rick Caruso, a wealthy businessman who sought Los Angeles’s mayoralty in 2022 with a campaign that emphasized crime, homelessness and quality-of-life issues. A former Republican, Caruso has been visible in the aftermath of this winter’s devastating fires and could appeal to voters on both sides of the aisle — if he were to run and make it to the general election.

There’s also some uncomfortable history here for Harris, who would not be the first former VP to lose a presidential race only to turn around and seek California’s top job. Richard Nixon had been a senator and congressman from California before becoming Dwight Eisenhower’s No. 2.

After narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy in the race to succeed Ike, Nixon threw himself into the 1962 California governor’s race. At first, it seemed like a cinch: A July 1961 poll found him 16 points ahead of the incumbent Democrat, Pat Brown. Nixon saw it as a chance to put a win on the board before running for president again in 1964, but those early sentiments from the electorate gave way to a comeback victory by Brown, who defeated Nixon by 6 points.

Since then, two other vice presidents have sought to revive their careers after losing White House bids. Hubert Humphrey, who as Lyndon B. Johnson’s VP lost to Nixon in 1968, won back a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota in 1970. Like Nixon in California, Humphrey was still dreaming of the presidency, but he was a deeply admired figure in Minnesota and the outcome was never in doubt.

Minnesota was also the setting for Walter Mondale’s extremely brief, late-in-life comeback effort in 2002. The former VP, who’d been crushed by Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election, was recruited by Democrats as an emergency candidate following the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone in a plane crash. Mondale entered the race a week before Election Day and lost narrowly to Republican Norm Coleman.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.

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