'I'm dead serious': Kristi Noem snaps at Democrat over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation - The Economic Times Video
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem fired back at a Democrat in a tense exchange over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation during a high-stakes full committee hearing on Homeland Security. The debate escalates as Noem defends her stance on immigration amidst the review of the 'Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Budget Request', signaling a critical moment for U.S. immigration and security policy.
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Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Elon Musk and Donald Trump's feud goes public: Timeline of their tumultuous partnership
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's relationship seems to have taken a downward spiral in the past few days. The pair that once grabbed every opportunity to praise each other's work have now resorted to engaging in frequent social media spats due to a difference of opinion over Trump's new 'Big, Beautiful Bill'. The confrontation reached a peak on Thursday (June 5), after Musk's exit from the Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE). Considering the events of the past year, it may be hard to believe that Musk hasn't always been Trump's biggest fan. During Trump's first run for presidency back in 2016, Musk openly expressed his support for Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton in an interview with CNBC, labeling her environmental and economic policies 'the right ones'. "I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States,' Musk said of Trump at the time. Once Trump beat Clinton in the 2016 race to the White House, Musk retained ties with the federal government due to the close contractual interaction between NASA and his company SpaceX. He was also a part of several White House advisory boards such as Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Council. However, when Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords in 2017, Musk publicly voiced his disapproval of the decision by tweeting, 'Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.' Trump, however, felt differently and publicaly called Musk a 'great guy' during a 2020 SpaceX launch in Florida. It was in May 2022, that Musk decided to switch his allegiance from blue to red and publically declared his support of the Republican Party, calling the Democrats a 'party of division & hate'. Even though Musk decided to rally behind the GOP, it didn't automatically ensure his support for Trump as the right man for the job. He instead supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a long-time rival of Trump, and even joined a Twitter livestream in May 2023 to support his campaign for the presidency. Despite a social media feud with Trump in 2022, Musk took the call to reinstate Trump's Twitter account after buying the company in October of that year. His account had previously been suspended from the platform following the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. This move came four days after Trump announced his third run for the presidency. It was after an assassination attempt during his election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, that Musk first announced public support for Trump's presidency via a social media post. Trump and Musk came together on an X livestream to share their views on various political topics during which the Tesla CEO expressed a willingness to serve in government by posting a picture of him as a representative of a new department: DoGE. Musk reportedly became the largest spender in the 2024 presidential election by contributing about a quarter of a billion dollars for several Republicans' campaigns, specifically that of Trump. He was then spotted standing next to the presidential candidate in an October rally back at the Pennsylvania location of Trump's failed assassination attempt while wearing a 'Make America Great Again' cap and calling him the only candidate 'to preserve democracy in America'. One of Trump's first moves after returning to the White House was to pass an executive order that materialized DoGE into reality. Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were now tasked with identifying and cutting down on wasteful spending and frauds in the bureaucracy. The President also attended a SpaceX 'Starship' launch in Texas during this time to express his support for Musk. January 2025 Trump gave Musk a special shoutout during his election night victory speech by calling him an 'amazing guy' and saying, 'A star is born.' As head of the DoGE, Musk took active measures to cut costs but failed to meet his target of saving up to $1 trillion during his time in office which would have helped cut down on the $36 trillion US debt and possibly circulate stimulus checks among the American population. He was soon included in the President's inner circle as a trusted advisor and regularly attended cabinet meetings or traveled aboard Air Force One. When Trump opponents protested against Musk's company, the President rolled onto the White House's South Lawn in a red Tesla to publically announce support for the car and his friend. He took to social media to applaud Musk for doing a 'FANTASTIC JOB' and said that he would buy a brand new Tesla the very next day. Due to flaking investor confidence in the Tesla CEO's ability to devote time to the company and the lapse of the 130 days for special government employees like Musk, Trump announced that his confidant would soon be leaving DoGE. 'You're invited to stay as long as you want. At some point, he wants to get back home to his cars,' said Trump during a cabinet meeting. During a May 29 CBS interview, Musk expressed his disappointment with several provisions in Trump's new public spending bill which he felt would increase the budget deficit and undermine all the work he had been trying to do at DOGE. 'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' he said. Trump gave the former DoGE head a farewell the next day as he left office by saying, 'Elon's really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling.' Once out of office, Musk started voicing his criticism of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' in harsher terms by labeling it a 'disgusting abomination." Trump subsequently threatened to cancel Musk's governmental subsidies and contracts. Musk clapped back by claiming that Trump would not have won the presidency without him. Musk reshared posts critical of the President on his page including one that demanded Trump's impeachment. During the spar, Trump blamed Musk's social media lash-out on his decision to end tax credits for electric vehicles. The feud reached a peak on Thursday when Musk dropped a bomb by claiming that Trump is intentionally shielding the full release of the Epstein files due to his involvement in the case.
Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Indian Express
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the US, charged with human smuggling as attorneys vow ongoing fight
To hear the Trump administration tell it, Kilmar Abrego Garcia smuggled thousands of people across the country who were living in the U.S. illegally, including members of the violent MS-13 gang, long before his mistaken deportation to El Salvador. In allegations made public nearly three months after his removal, U.S. officials say Abrego Garcia abused the women he transported, while a co-conspirator alleged he participated in a gang-related killing in his native El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's wife and lawyers offer a much different story. They say the now 29-year-old had as a teenager fled local gangs that terrorized his family in El Salvador for a life in Maryland. He found work in construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities before he was mistakenly deported in March. The fight became a political flashpoint in the administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement. Now it returns to the U.S. court system, where Abrego Garcia appeared Friday after being returned from El Salvador. He faces new charges related to a large human smuggling operation and is in federal custody in Tennessee. Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welken in a phone interview Saturday President Donald Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. 'The Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that's fine,' he said. 'There are two ways you could have done it, and they decided to do it that way.' Trump said it should 'be a very easy case.' In announcing Abrego Garcia's return Attorney General Pam Bondi called him 'a smuggler of humans and children and women' in announcing the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. His lawyers say a jury won't believe the 'preposterous' allegations. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said his return to the U.S. was long overdue. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all,' the Maryland Democrat said in a statement. 'The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador's capital city, San Salvador, according to court documents filed in U.S. immigration court in 2019. His father was a former police officer. His mother, Cecilia, sold pupusas, flat tortilla pouches that hold steaming blends of cheese, beans or pork. The entire family, including his two sisters and brother, ran the business from home, court records state. 'Everyone in the town knew to get their pupusas from 'Pupuseria Cecilia,'' his lawyers wrote. A local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting the family for 'rent money' and threatened to kill his brother Cesar — or force him into their gang — if they weren't paid, court documents state. The family complied but eventually sent Cesar to the U.S. Barrio 18 similarly targeted Abrego Garcia, court records state. When he was 12, the gang threatened to take him away until his father paid them. The family moved but the gang threatened to rape and kill Abrego Garcia's sisters, court records state. The family closed the business, moved again, and eventually sent Abrego Garcia to the U.S. The family never went to the authorities because of rampant police corruption, according to court filings. The gang continued to harass the family in Guatemala, which borders El Salvador. Abrego Garcia fled to the U.S. illegally around 2011, the year he turned 16, according to documents in his immigration case. He joined Cesar, now a U.S. citizen, in Maryland and found construction work. About five years later, Abrego Garcia met Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, the records say. In 2018, after she learned she was pregnant, he moved in with her and her two children. They lived in Prince George's County, just outside Washington. In March 2019, Abrego Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing. A criminal informant told police that Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, court records state but Prince George's County Police did not charge the men. The department said this year it had no further interactions with Abrego Garcia or 'any new intelligence' on him. Abrego Garcia has denied being in MS-13. Although they did not charge him, local police turned Abrego Garcia over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He told a U.S. immigration judge that he would seek asylum and asked to be released because Vasquez Sura was pregnant, according to his immigration case. The Department of Homeland Security alleged Abrego Garcia was a gang member based on the county police's information, according to the case. The immigration judge kept Abrego Garcia in jail as his case continued, the records show. Abrego Garcia later married Vasquez Sura in a Maryland detention center, according to court filings. She gave birth while he was still in jail. In October 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia's asylum request but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador because of a 'well-founded fear' of gang persecution, according to his case. He was released; ICE did not appeal. Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly while Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his attorneys said in court filings. He joined a union and was employed full time as a sheet metal apprentice. In 2021, Vasquez Sura filed a temporary protection order against Abrego Garcia, stating he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt during an argument. The case was dismissed weeks later, according to court records. Vasquez Sura said in a statement, after the document's release by the Trump administration, that the couple had worked things out 'privately as a family, including by going to counseling.' 'After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar,' she stated. She added that 'Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him.' In 2022, according to a report released by the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for speeding. The vehicle had eight other people and no luggage, prompting an officer to suspect him of human trafficking, the report stated. Abrego Garcia said he was driving them from Texas to Maryland for construction work, the report stated. No citations were issued. Abrego Garcia's wife said in a statement in April that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, 'so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.' The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video body camera footage this May of the 2022 traffic stop. It shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia as well as the officers discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking before sending him on his way. One of the officers said: 'He's hauling these people for money.' Another said he had $1,400 in an envelope. An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the release that he saw no evidence of a crime in the footage. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March despite the U.S. immigration judge's order. For nearly three months, his attorneys have fought for his return in a federal court in Maryland. The Trump administration described the mistaken removal as 'an administrative error' but insisted he was in MS-13. His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in the months-long standoff. The charges he faces stem from the 2022 vehicle stop in Tennessee but the human smuggling indictment lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now. A co-conspirator also alleged that Abrego Garcia participated in the killing of a gang member's mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation. 'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welker in a telephone interview President Donald Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. Abrego Garcia's attorney disagreed. 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Indian Express
8 hours ago
- Indian Express
Self-deporting via app? US offers $1,000 and travel aid for undocumented immigrants
The US Embassy in India Saturday again addressed foreign nationals in the United States announcing incentives for those willing to leave. In a post on X, the US Embassy warned international individuals illegally present in the country to leave immediately. However, it followed this message with what it called a 'historic opportunity for foreign nationals who wish to leave the United States, including those unlawfully present.' The statement said: 'Depending on their circumstances, they might receive financial and other assistance from the US government to depart.' Those interested have been directed to register through the Trump administration's self-deportation Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App. The US government is promoting the CBP Home App for its incentives tied to voluntary exits of illegal immigrants. US Secretary of Homeland Security described self-deportation as the 'best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.' Foreign nationals in the United States residing illegally should leave immediately. The Department of Homeland Security has announced an historic opportunity for foreign nationals who wish to leave the United States, including those unlawfully present. Depending on their… — U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) June 7, 2025 'DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App. This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70 per cent savings for US taxpayers,' she added. Currently, the DHS claims that the average cost to arrest, detain and deport someone from the US is $17,121, The Guardian reported. According to the official Homeland Security website, incentives tied to self-deportation include a $1,000 stipend, and financial and travel document assistance. The stipend is granted once confirmation is received through the CBP Home App that the return has been completed. Those who voluntarily register may also receive help with booking tickets and obtaining necessary travel documentation. 'Aliens requesting assistance will have a timely departure arrangement facilitated for them (estimated departure to be within 21 days of approval),' the website states. Other incentives include a longer departure period for self-funded travellers, deprioritisation for detention or removal by ICE, and improved chances for future immigration options. The DHS outlines two eligible categories: 'Non-criminal aliens illegally in the United States who had an encounter with CBP either at a port of entry or between ports of entry' and 'categorical parolees whose legal presence in the United States has expired or will soon expire.' Applicants must be physically present in the US at the time of applying. Just days earlier, the US Embassy in India had issued another alert for visa overstayers, warning they 'risk arrest and heavy fines or incarceration… may be deported and could face a permanent ban on future travel to the United States.'
