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Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks to people who held a prayer vigil and rally on his behalf outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Baltimore, Maryland, on Aug. 25, 2025. Lydia Walther Rodriguez with CASA interprets for him. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) WASHINGTON — Following a dismissal of criminal charges the Trump administration lodged against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland resident Thursday pressed a federal judge to prevent his removal to any country that is not Costa Rica, which has agreed to accept him as a refugee.  The filing in the federal District Court for the District of Maryland comes after  a federal judge in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 22 dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal indictment charges of human smuggling that stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop. The judge called the prosecution “vindictive and selective.” Abrego Garcia’s habeas petition before Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis argues that the Tr...

Plumes of smoke rise following an explosion on March 5, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Democrats in the U.S. Senate on May 27, 2026, asked that the Congressional Budget Office provide the "true costs" of the Iran war. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. Senate Democrats has sent a letter to the head of the Congressional Budget Office, asking him to include outside projections for the cost of the Iran war in the agency’s official cost estimate.  “The American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict, and they deserve transparency and honesty when their government commits the nation to war,” the senators wrote in the May 27 letter to the nonpartisan agency. “Your timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight.” House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa.,  sent a letter to the CBO in ea...

Two people enter a polling place at Messiah Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama on May 19, 2026. Democrats saw a significant increase in voter participation in the May 19 primary, though most ballots were cast in the Republican primary. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) The May 19 primary in the state saw a decrease in Republican turnout from four years ago and an increase in Democratic voting, though a majority of voters chose to vote in the GOP primary.   According to t he Alabama Secretary of State’s office , just over 493,000 (57%) Republican ballots were cast in last week’s primary. That was a decrease from the 2022 midterm election where Republican voters made up 660,800 (78%) of the ballots cast. The reasons for the drop are not clear. While there were contested races up and down the ballot, the gubernatorial race, where U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville was widely seen as the prohibitive favorite, was noncompetitive. In 2022, Gov. Kay Ivey faced challenges fro...

In this 2023 photo, a Honduran migrant is overcome with emotion as he describes the extortion and threats that he says drove him and his partner to flee Honduras with their child. Fraudulent asylum claims are rare, but the Trump administration has issued a new directive targeting lawyers who file false claims. (Photo by Corrie Boudreaux for Source NM) In its latest effort to narrow pathways to immigration to the United States, the Trump administration says it will crack down on attorneys who file fraudulent asylum claims for their clients. The U.S. has long granted asylum to people who are unable or unwilling to return to their home countries because they have been persecuted, or fear persecution, based on their race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinions. In a directive it issued on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to develop anti-fraud policies and to take action against immigration attorneys...

A sign marking the Southern Poverty Law Center outside the organization's headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The civil rights group on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss criminal charges against it, alleging vindictive prosecution. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center Tuesday asked a federal court to dismiss criminal charges brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice, citing statements made by President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials as evidence of vindictive prosecution. The motion highlighted comments made by Trump; Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche; FBI Director Kash Patel and other members of the administration that criticized the organization. In one instance, Trump alleged that the indictment “had nothing to do with the SPLC breaking the law; it had everything to do with the SPLC’s perceived political leaning” a couple of days after the news conference. The motion also cites an Ap...

Vice President JD Vance, center, arrives at a roundtable anti-fraud meeting with Republican attorneys general in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus on May 26, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A handful of Democratic state attorneys general said Tuesday that expert officials from their offices were denied access to a major White House anti-fraud meeting convened by Vice President JD Vance and attended by Republican AGs. Two dozen Democratic attorneys general had earlier declined invitations for their own attendance at the White House anti-fraud roundtable, citing extremely short notice and a lack of an agenda in a letter to Vance, who has helmed the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-fraud effort.   Instead, some sent top officials from their offices to Washington. Democratic attorneys general in California, New York and New Jersey said at a press conference later Tuesday that officials from their states were...