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A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador, ruling the removal violated a court settlement protecting some young migrants with pending asylum claims, according to an order issued Wednesday.

The person deported was part of a class action case filed in 2019 on behalf of individuals who arrived in the US as unaccompanied minors and later sought asylum. A settlement in that case determined they could not be removed from the United States until their claims were fully adjudicated.

US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was nominated to the post by President Donald Trump, issued the order directing the government to work with Salvadoran authorities to return the man to the United States. The man is referred to only as “Cristian” in court filings. Gallagher also barred the removal of other individuals covered by the settlement agreement, which was finalized in November 2024. According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Cristian was removed on March 15 and sent to a prison in El Salvador.

The judge’s ruling marks a second order directed to the Trump administration to secure the return of a man from El Salvador to the US and illustrates an increasing showdown between the administration and the federal judiciary over how much power courts have in resolving disputes concerning immigration.

Citing the precedent of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the government admitted was wrongly deported, Gallagher wrote in her opinion: “Like Judge (Paula) Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this Court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement.”

Donald Trump’s unilateral effort to reshape election processes is an attempt to “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order,” a federal judge in Washington, D.C. wrote Thursday afternoon.

In a 120-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked the Trump administration from requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and ordering that election officials “assess” the citizenship of anyone who receives public assistance before allowing them to register. She also barred the Election Assistance Commission from withholding federal funding from states that did not comply with the order.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” she wrote. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday offered rare criticism of Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian leader to “STOP!” after a deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Russia struck Kyiv with an hourslong barrage of missiles and drones. At least 12 people were killed and 90 were injured in the deadliest assault on the city since last July.

Trump’s frustration is growing as a U.S.-led effort to get a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia has not made progress.

The comments about Putin came after Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and accused him of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014.

A number of party leaders are frustrated that Hogg, who has a leadership position in the party, is pushing primaries against some incumbents in deep-blue seats.

Democratic party leaders Thursday morning admonished officers to not take sides in primaries, addressing a situation involving activist and Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg.

"Let me be unequivocal. No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger," DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a press call. "Voters should decide who our primary nominees are, not DNC leadership. Our role is to serve as stewards of a fair, open and trusted process, not to tilt the scales."'

As of now, however, the DNC does not have the power to remove Hogg if he refuses to stand down on funding primary challenges through a separate PAC — unless the body changes its rules, a senior DNC official told NBC News.

“Under the present bylaws, there is no action that can be taken against David Hogg without changing to the bylaws to extend that policy of neutrality to all primaries," DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge told NBC News. "There is no codified, legal way to remove an officer for doing what David Hogg has done because it only extends to the presidential race. "

Korge said that, as of now, the situation is to be addressed at a future meeting, likely in August.

Korge said he believed it was imperative for the body to formally change its bylaws because the party division the Hogg situation has caused harkens to an old ghost Democrats don't want to revisit.

“It smells like 2016, when progressives said the DNC had it in the bag for Hillary Clinton," Korge said, referencing angst in the party that the DNC had its thumb on the scale to block Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from the presidential nomination. "No party official, no officer of the DNC, should do anything that would result in the division that was created by the perception that existed back in 2016."

On Thursday, Martin went on to say he had spoken to Hogg about what he perceived as a conflict but he did not expound on whether he gave him an ultimatum.

"I understand what he's trying to do," Martin continued in the press call. "As I've said to him, 'If you want to challenge incumbents, you're more than free to do that. But just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be a neutral arbiter. We can't be both the referee and also the player at the same time. You have to make a decision.'"

In pushing back on Thursday, Hogg cited Trump's power clashes with institutions in saying the party needed to take more aggressive actions. He added that he had not violated any DNC bylaws.

"They’re trying to change the rules because I'm not currently breaking them. As we’re seeing law firms, tech companies, and so many others bowing to Trump, we all must use whatever position of power we have to fight back. And that’s exactly what I'm doing," Hogg said in a statement.

An alleged leader of violence during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 has been living in an exclusive enclave on Long Island as a beekeeper. He was arrested Thursday and accused of concealing his role in horrific violence and human rights violations by making false statements in his applications for a visa, green card and for U.S. citizenship, according to the Justice Department.

Faustin Nsabumukunzi is charged with visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud for allegedly lying on his application for a green card and for U.S. citizenship.

Nsabumukunzi was arrested at his home in Bridgehampton and pleaded not guilty Thursday in Islip federal court. He was released on $250,000 bond with home detention and GPS monitoring and will be allowed to keep working as a gardener for a private equity entrepreneur on Long Island who signed his bond.

“As alleged, Nsabumukunzi repeatedly lied to conceal his involvement in the horrific Rwandan genocide while seeking to become a lawful permanent resident and citizen of the United States,” said United States Attorney John Durham. “For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate, a luxury that his victims will never have, but thanks to the tenacious efforts of our investigators and prosecutors, the defendant finally will be held accountable for his brutal actions.”

According to officials, Nsabumukunzi served as a local leader with the title of “Sector Councilor” in Rwanda in 1994 when the genocide began. Between April 1994 and July 1994, members of the majority Hutu population persecuted the minority Tutsis, committing acts of violence, including murder, rape and sexual violence. During the three-month genocide, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.

According to the indictment, Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position as Sector Councilor to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local sector of Kibirizi and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis. He set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings and violence, according to court documents.

Lawyers for the federal government briefly published internal correspondence on Wednesday evening detailing a laundry list of flaws in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s legal strategy to shut down the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls.

The document, dated April 11, was mistakenly posted on the docket of the MTA’s federal lawsuit challenging U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s effort to kill the tolls by revoking federal approval. The internal 11-page letter, sent from attorneys in the Southern District of New York to a lawyer for the federal transportation department, was taken down less than an hour after it was erroneously put online. By Thursday afternoon, the attorneys were taken off the case while a transportation department spokesperson speculated they published the document as an act of sabatoge.

It marked a new, bizarre wrinkle in the legal back-and-forth between New York state and the Trump administration over the future of the Manhattan tolls — and sparked yet another round of recrimination within President Donald Trump's justice department.

Three assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in the internal letter that Duffy’s current argument to shut down the tolls isn’t likely to hold up in court. The program was approved under former President Joe Biden through a U.S. DOT pilot program – the Value Pricing Pilot Program – that allows local governments to impose tolls on federally funded roads. Duffy has argued he has the authority to rescind that approval, but the government attorneys were skeptical.

“It is unlikely that Judge [Lewis] Liman or further courts of review will accept the argument that [congestion pricing] was not a statutorily authorized ‘value pricing’ pilot” by the federal government, the letter states. “We have been unable to identify a compelling legal argument to support this position."

Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation on Wednesday to create a government entity similar to the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office's mission will be similar to its federal counterpart: to eliminate what some state leaders characterize as waste, fraud and corruption in government. But instead of reducing government agencies themselves like DOGE has, the state office aims to eliminate red tape for businesses.

Abbott touted Texas' business-friendly environment and growing economy at the bill signing ceremony. But he said there is still room to improve, citing a study by George Mason University that found that Texas regulates businesses more than most states.

Abbott said the new office will recalibrate "government in the state of Texas by making it more responsible, more responsive, less costly and more efficient."

WASHINGTON – A federal judge agreed to give the Trump administration another week to answer detailed questions about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued a scathing rebuke of the administration's response to her order for more details about its efforts to return him to the U.S.

But the Trump administration asked for more time to respond in the case of the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador last month in an "administrative error" despite court protections.

Despite the temporary reprieve, the standoff between the White House and the federal courts may still be heading for a reckoning. In a scathing order Tuesday evening, Judge Xinis accused the Justice Department of willful refusal to comply with her order and attempting to "obstruct" discovery after receiving what she characterized as vague and unsatisfying responses to her demand for information on efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

"Defendants have failed to respond in good faith, and their refusal to do so can only be viewed as willful and intentional noncompliance," Xinis wrote.

"That ends now," Judge Xinis declared as she rejected the administration's arguments so far as "specious" and condemned their "mischaracterization" of the Supreme Court's directive to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S.

In response, Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign filed a sealed motion on Wednesday requesting a seven-day stay of the judge's directive for the U.S. to provide testimony and documents.

It was March 13 when Nedizon Alejandro Leon Rengel called his brother Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel to wish him a happy birthday.

Alejandro never heard back from him. Federal agents detained Adrián on his way to his job at a Dallas barbershop.

For the next five weeks, Alejandro has searched for Adrián, trying to learn where he was: deported to another country? Held in an immigration facility in the United States?

He and Adrián’s live-in girlfriend called Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas, getting shifted from office to office with different responses.

Sometimes they were told Adrián was still in detention. Another time they were told that he had been deported back to “his country of origin,” El Salvador, even though Adrián is Venezuelan. (Alejandro provided NBC News with audio recordings of the calls.)

Their mother went to a detention center in Caracas, Venezuela, where deportees are held when they arrive from the United States, Alejandro said, but she was told no one by her son’s name was there.

They enlisted the help of advocacy groups. Cristosal, a nonprofit organization in El Salvador working with families of presumed deportees to get answers from the U.S. and Salvadoran governments, had no answers. Same with the League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC.

Alejandro’s 6-year-old niece asked him almost every day: When will her dad call her?

“For 40 days, his family has been waiting to hear his fate,” LULAC CEO Juan Proaño said.

Finally, on Tuesday, an answer. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NBC News that Adrián had, in fact, been deported — to El Salvador.

KYIV - Ukraine will abide by an Easter truce, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, hours after Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to pause all combat activity until 2100 GMT on April 20 (5am on April 21 in Singapore).

“If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly – mirroring Russia’s actions,” Mr Zelensky said on April 19, in a post on X.

He proposed “extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20.”

But the Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of having already broken its promises.

“Russian assault operations continue on several front-line sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided,” he said.

Ukraine’s Kherson governor reported several Russian drone attacks after Mr Putin’s order was supposed to have come into force at 6pm.

Ukraine’s air force issue air-raid warnings across several regions in eastern Ukraine on April 19 evening, also while the ceasefire was supposed to be in effect.

Dozens of opponents of President Kais Saied were imprisoned for 13 to 66 years for national security offenses. Their trial was labeled a "farce" and part of a clampdown by the North African nation's authoritarian ruler.

A court in Tunisia sentenced opposition figures, businessmen and lawyers to jail terms of 13 to 66 years after they were found guilty of conspiring against state security, state media reported on Saturday.

The opposition said the charges were fabricated and that the trial was a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.

What do we know about the case?

State news agency TAP first reported the sentences that ranged from 13 to 66 years, citing a judicial spokesperson as saying they were enforced immediately.

Forty people were prosecuted in the case, although more than half of them fled abroad after being charged.

Tunisian media outlets reported that the defendants were found guilty of "conspiracy against state security and belonging to a terrorist group."

Authorities say the defendants tried to destabilize the country and overthrow Saied.

Many of those jailed were vocal critics of the president, including Nejib Chebbi, the leader of the main National Salvation Front opposition coalition.

Chebbi told reporters before Friday's sentencing that the trial proved that Tunisian authorities wanted to "criminalize the opposition."

Others include Chebbi's brother, Issam Chebbi, the leader of the centrist Republican Party, Ghazi Chaouachi, the head of the center-left Democratic Current party, and Abdelhamid Jelassi, from Ennahda, an Islamic democratic movement.

A former head of intelligence, Kamel Guizan, was also one of the defendants.

If Russia is able to maintain a full ceasefire throughout Easter weekend, Ukraine would like to extend the truce for 30 days, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 19.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he ordered a halt on all combat operations during the Easter holiday. The temporary ceasefire is set to last from 6 p.m. Moscow time on April 19 until midnight on April 21.

Zelensky said that Kyiv was prepared to abide by a ceasefire if Russia is serious about halting attacks, but will respond in kind if Russia violates the truce.

"If complete silence really prevails, Ukraine proposes to extend it after the end of Easter on April 20," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the evening of April 19.

"This will show Russia's true intentions, because 30 hours is enough for headlines, but not for real confidence-building measures. Thirty days can give peace a chance."

Russia has not suspended all assault operations on the front line, Zelensky said, citing reports from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. The continued shelling and attacks undermine trust in Moscow's claims of a truce.

"The Ukrainian Defense Forces will act rationally, responding in a mirror manner. There will be an adequate response to every Russian strike," Zelensky said.

Ukraine remains ready to begin an unconditional ceasefire in line with Washington's previous proposal for a 30-day truce as soon as Russia agrees to the same terms, the president said.