Today in summary
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Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland traveled to El Salvador in an effort to get answers about the Trump administration’s illegal deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García. He said he hoped to meet Ábrego García in person and see his condition. He previously told the Guardian the case had tipped the US into a constitutional crisis.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back during a White House press briefing, saying that Democrats refuse to “accept the will of the American people,” and repeating administration claims that García was a member of the MS-13 gang. “Nothing will change the fact that Ábrego García will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again,” she said.
Here are other things we covered today:
The “special guest” at today’s briefing is Patty Morin, the mother of a woman who was raped and murdered in 2023, who shared devastating details about her daughter’s murder – which has nothing to do with Kilmar Ábrego García.
The IRS is making plans to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status after the agency has made a determination that an organization has violated the rules that govern tax exemptions for not-for-profit entities.
Donald Trump has proposed giving money to immigrants in the country illegally who choose to leave voluntarily, and that his “self-deportation program” would include the prospect of those who are “good” re-entering the country later legally.
The Department of Health and Human Services may be facing a severe $40bn budget cut – slashing roughly a third in discretionary spending according to an internal budget document.
Senator Chris Van Hollen was told that the Trump administration was paying the El Salvadorian government to hold Ábrego García, citing that as the reason he has not been released.
A new proposal from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries has offered a new interpretation of Endangered Species Act, which would strike habitat destruction from regulations.
The Trump Administration is hoping to narrow protections in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by redefining the word “harm”.
A new proposal from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries has offered a new interpretation of the 1973 law, which would strike habitat destruction from regulations.
“The existing regulatory definition of ‘harm,’ which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term ‘take,” the proposal says.
“Take,” is a term used to denote any actions that include hunting, capturing, wounding, or killing a protected species. With this proposal, the administration is arguing habitat considerations shouldn’t be included.
But habitat loss is considered the strongest driver of species loss, pushing many species closer to extinction.
First reported on by Courthouse News Service, the proposal is scheduled to published in the Federal Register tomorrow.
