2 months ago
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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to return an illegal immigrant gang member who was deported to El Salvador to the United States.
👥 Who’s Involved: U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, President Donald J. Trump, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, and federal immigration officials.
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📍 Where & When: U.S. federal court on Friday, April 4.
💬 Key Quote: “You have an agreement with this facility where you’re paying the money to perform a certain service. It stands to reason that you can go to the payee and say, ‘We want the person back.’” — Judge Paula Xinis
⚠️ Impact: The ruling represents a significant usurpation of executive branch authority in the United States and potentially infringes upon El Salvador’s sovereignty over its own citizens.
IN FULL:
U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis is ordering the Trump administration to arrange for an illegal immigrant MS-13 gang member who was deported to El Salvador to be returned to the United States by midnight on Monday. The bizarre and unprecedented ruling represents a significant usurpation of executive branch power by a federal court and appears to imply United States law takes precedence over El Salvador’s own sovereignty.
“You have an agreement with this facility where you’re paying the money to perform a certain service,” Judge Xinis said when issuing her ruling on Friday, adding: “It stands to reason that you can go to the payee and say, ‘We want the person back.’”
The case involves the recent deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant who was ordered to be detained by a U.S. immigration judge due to his affiliation with the violent MS-13 gang, which made him a danger to the community. While the judge ordered Abrego Garcia to be removed from the United States in 2019, the gang member and illegal immigrant was able to secure a grant of withholding preventing his deportation to El Salvador after convincing the court that a rival gang in the country had threatened his life should he return.
However, as part of President Trump’s deportation agreement with the El Salvadoran government, Abrego Garcia—still under the protective order—was included among other dangerous illegal immigrants and flown to El Salvador to be held in the country’s CECOT facility. Consequently, Abrego Garcia filed a lawsuit arguing his removal was unlawful, asking that the U.S. courts intervene and order his return to the United States.
Federal officials have been forward in admitting that Abrego Garcia’s removal and deportation to his home country was in error and that the court-issued protective order had been accidentally violated. However, since he is an El Salvadoran national and currently in the custody of the El Salvadoran government, the Trump administration contends that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction, noting that issues of diplomacy are a constitutionally reserved power of the executive branch.
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in response to the U.S. court’s order, posted on X (formerly Twitter) a gif of an animated rabbit making an exaggerated face expressing confusion.
https://t.co/ahmffGCdpn pic.twitter.com/oegtIbgvRd
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 4, 2025
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) reportedly accepted approximately $400,000 from Political Action Committees (PACs) despite previously claiming to have taken no money from such sources.
👥 Who’s Involved: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and various PAC donors, as well as telecom companies like AT&T and labor unions.
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📍 Where & When: The financial disclosures relate to contributions between July 5 and December 31, 2020; Crockett ran for state representative and subsequently for Congress.
💬 Key Quote: Professor Matthew Foster remarked, “Democrats are more sensitive to this. They know people look at their contributions and use them against them.”
⚠️ Impact: The revelations raise questions about Crockett’s campaign financing claims.
IN FULL:
Far-left Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is being accused of having lied while serving in the Texas state legislature, publicly claiming in a 2020 post on Twitter (now known as X) that she does not accept campaign contributions from corporate Political Action Committees (PACs). However, the recent disclosure of campaign finance documents reveals Crockett has received nearly $400,000 in campaign contributions from PACs. Notably, in 2020, while Crockett publicly declared that she didn’t take corporate money, campaign filings show she received contributions from at least 22 entities described as PACs.
While serving in the Texas state legislature, Crockett received contributions from numerous corporate PACs, including telecom giant AT&T and a Wholesale Beer PAC. More recently, as a member of Congress, the Texas Democrat has more openly accepted corporate cash, with over $370,000 in federal PAC contributions since she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Among her corporate backers are major pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie and Gilead Sciences, powerful financial firms like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, and even defense contractors like Lockheed Martin.
Even more concerning, Congresswoman Crockett has accepted numerous overseas junket trips financed by foreign governments and business consortiums. In February 2023, Crockett participated in a foreign junket to Doha, Qatar, costing around $17,500. The junket and expenses were covered by the U.S. Qatar Business Council, a Qatari entity that advocates for increased trade and investment between the United States and the Persian Gulf state, which is accused of being a major financier of Islamist terror groups, including Hamas. Similar trips, sponsored by Indian and Emirati authorities, were also noted in her financial disclosures for that year.
Crockett’s reversal on accepting corporate PAC contributions could become a political liability for the Congresswoman. In a recent media interview, American University professor Matthew Foster noted, “Democrats are more sensitive to this. They know people look at their contributions and use them against them.” He added: “Clearly [Crockett] thinks that issue is a big deal and a way to resonate with voters—so if what they put out there was false, it’s a great opportunity for the opposition to run on that.”
More recently, the Texas Congresswoman has faced significant criticism from both Republicans and Democrats after she made derogatory comments about Texas Governor Gregg Abbott (R). The National Pulse reported last week that Crockett, while speaking at a Human Rights Campaign event in Los Angeles, referred to the disabled and wheelchair-bound Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels.”
Subsequently, Crockett has dubiously claimed the derogatory nickname for Gov. Abbott was in reference to his use of buses to send illegal immigrants from Texas to Democrat-run cities like Chicago and New York. However, it is widely reported that the far-left Texas Democrat has referred to Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels” for years and well before he began bussing illegal immigrants out of his state.
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