The case of a Maryland man accidentally deported to a notorious El Salvador prison has galvanized public attention. Gabrielle Banks, an editor on USA TODAY's politics team, discusses the latest on the return plan for Kilmar Abrego Garcia based on a Friday hearing.A judge will not curb immigration enforcement in places of worship. Also, Nineteen state attorneys general ask a federal judge to block President Donald Trump's international student-visa cancellations. Plus, a judge rules that Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil can be deported.USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison explains that Elon Musk lowered DOGE's projected savings dramatically.A Trump budget proposal would fully eliminate Head Start.A man has been arrested and charged with making online death threats against President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and ICE agents.Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected] Transcript available hereAlso available at art19.com/shows/5-ThingsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What happened to the Maryland man wrongly deported?
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Saturday, April 12th, 2025. This is The Exit. Today, what's next for the Maryland man wrongly deported to Central America? Plus we look into some other late week immigration rulings and Elon Musk lowers Doge's projected savings.
A federal judge yesterday ordered the Trump administration to provide immediate information on the whereabouts of a Maryland man who the Supreme Court this week said must be returned after being wrongfully deported to El Salvador. I spoke with Gabrielle Banks, an editor on USA Today's politics team, for more. Gabrielle, thank you so much for hopping on the show today. You're welcome.
Gabby, you attended this hearing yesterday, Friday. Paint the picture for us. Where were you and what was the scene or the mood like around the courthouse?
Chapter 2: What was the atmosphere like at the courthouse?
It was raining pretty hard. There's maybe a couple dozen protesters outside with handmade signs. Some were covered with plastic. Some had ink dripping down their hands. It's a massive federal courthouse in Prince George's County. There were not many people coming or going from this building on a Friday afternoon, but I was in the overflow room.
There were enough people going to this hearing that there were probably 40 or 50 reporters in the overflow room, sitting there with laptops and watching it on the big screen. It's very unusual for there to be that many reporters. Not for the Supreme Court, but for any federal district court it is. And I spoke with a couple of protesters afterward.
One told me he was a technician at a Washington, D.C. public school. He said he doesn't know Abrego Garcia, but he got choked up talking about how upsetting it was to just imagine what had happened to him, that he hadn't been returned.
Wow. So in terms of Abrego Garcia and just his current situation at the time that we're talking, Gabby, where do things stand and what did a judge demand yesterday after the Supreme Court earlier in the week instructed government attorneys to begin the process of bringing him back home?
Well, the hearing lasted about 25 minutes. The Supreme Court the night before this hearing, Thursday night, said, you've got to expedite this. You've got to bring this man back. He was wrongly deported. So the lower court judge called this hearing for Tuesday afternoon and said before the hearing, let us know where he is and let's get this going.
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Chapter 3: What did the judge demand in the recent hearing?
There were instructions and the government, maybe an hour before the hearing, said, we're not going to have this for you and we can't get it for you. It's too quick. It's impracticable was the word that they used. So at the hearing, the judge said, it's very simple what I'm asking here. The instructions are, where is this guy? And in whose custody is he?
And what steps are you taking to bring him back? And the government said, we don't have that information. The lawyer for the government said, I don't have that information. The judge repeated many times, it's a simple question. I need someone with knowledge about this to tell me what's happening. And she said, this is a quote. She said, it's quite basic. I'm not asking for state secrets.
I'm asking where one man who was wrongly and illegally deported from this country is. When they repeated that they couldn't answer that question and the lawyer who was there didn't know, she said, I need daily updates. Because his answer was, I'll try to get it for you by the end of Tuesday. And the judge said, this court doesn't close for the weekend under these circumstances.
It's open all weekend. It's open in the evening. I'm going to check in with you daily until we find out where he is, whose custody he's in and when he's coming back. So the hearing is Wednesday, but every day until Wednesday, she's hoping that she can expedite it and get the answer sooner.
OK, so considering some of that strong language, really demanding language from the judge, what are we hearing from the Trump administration afterwards? And how are Abrego Garcia's lawyers or family responding to all this?
The lawyer just repeatedly said he didn't have the answers in the courtroom. He did accept the statement by Obrego Garcia's family that he was at that prison in El Salvador, but said that nobody in the administration had given him this information. And he said there were three federal agencies involved. He needed time to respond to the request.
What was interesting is outside the courtroom, the lawyer for the family, he stood with Abrego Garcia's wife and said, it's ridiculous. It's not that hard to figure this out. Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, went to El Salvador, went to this prison. The US was able to bring her back. Why can't they bring this guy back?
You know, curiously, the White House is prepared to host Salvador and President Nayib Bukele on Monday. I'd imagine, Gabby, this and the general use of El Salvador's SICOT prison may come up during this meeting. Is that a fair expectation? And just put this meeting in context for us, if you would.
Bukele is a Trump supporter, and the feeling is very mutual. Bukele will be thanked for solving this issue for Trump and taking people, many from Venezuela, into this notorious prison. It's unclear whether they'll talk about Abrego-Garcia's case.
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Chapter 4: What is the response from the Trump administration?
Thank you.
A federal judge yesterday refused to limit the Trump administration's immigration enforcement activities in places of worship. The move rules against a group of 27 religious organizations that had sued the administration over its decision to drop a previous policy against enforcement in sensitive locations.
A judge appointed by President Trump during his first term found that the organizations likely did not have standing to bring the case because their claims that they faced harm were speculative.
The group sued the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration enforcement agencies in February, arguing that the administration's policy change violated their right to religious freedom under federal law and the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, 19 Democratic state attorneys general are asking a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from canceling hundreds of international student visas, a move that sent shockwaves through the collegiate community. though there's been no comprehensive accounting of how many students have seen their visas revoked.
In some cases, weeks before graduation, Trump officials say they have been in part targeting students they accuse of harboring ill will toward the United States. And in a high-profile case, a U.S.
immigration judge ruled yesterday that Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, allowing Trump's administration to proceed with its effort to remove the Columbia University student from the country. Elon Musk this week seemed to give dramatically lower estimated savings for the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, than he had previously touted.
I spoke with USA Today White House correspondent Joey Garrison to learn more. Hi, Joey. Always a pleasure. Hey, thanks for having me on. So Joey, what's this new savings projection from Elon Musk? And I guess how does it differ from previous numbers we've heard him toss out there?
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Chapter 5: Why is this case significant to the public?
So on Thursday, President Trump had a cabinet meeting, which he opened up to reporters. As he has in other previous cabinet meetings, Musk had a seat at the table and Trump went around the room. Each cabinet secretary gave updates.
We got to Elon Musk, and he announced that he anticipates that Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency that he oversees, will produce savings of $150 billion in the next fiscal year, which starts at the beginning of October of this coming year. And that is a much lower cost than he has talked about when he talks about Doge savings. He's previously talked about cuts of
Initially, it was $2 trillion he touted back on the campaign trail with Trump. Then later, once Trump was gotten into office, he talked about $1 trillion in savings. On Thursday, he talked about $150 billion. What he said was, in fiscal year 26, we anticipate that amount of money, $150 billion. And so, you know, it raises questions in terms of
what the long-term scope of Doge is going to actually be. These comments were made at a time where Musk's status as a special government employee comes to an end in May.
Has anything tangible, I guess, Joey, happened in recent weeks for him to alter this outlook, alter this number so significantly?
Well, not specifically, other than the longevity of Musk in the White House. I mean, remember, Musk just had a setback. He involved himself heavily in that Wisconsin Supreme Court race and pumped $20 million into there. It ended up being a 10-point loss for the Trump-backed candidate there. It was kind of an embarrassing political setback of sorts for Musk.
He had said that the fate of Western civilization was at stake with that election and he lost that. Also, Elon Musk's poll numbers are pretty low, have been for a while. He polls more unpopular than the president. And so you got to wonder whether there's a political toll there. Musk in terms of the operation of the Doge though, you know, has continued to tout
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of immigration enforcement in sensitive areas?
what he calls waste and fraud found throughout the federal government. This past week, they started touting what they said were unemployment benefits that went out that were fraudulent. They cited $400 billion in that. But the question I have, but I can't ask this directly to Elon Musk, I did ask through the White House was, hey, if you go to Doge's website,
they tout $150 billion in savings to date. So was Elon Musk actually trying to just say that figure but misspoke? I asked the White House to clarify. They touted a massive progress from this $150 billion so far and reiterated that his goal has always been $1 trillion. Of course, a goal and what you're actually cutting are two different things.
How is Trump viewing Musk and Doge efforts at this point? And are there any signs of that alliance splitting, I guess, or not so much? Are they as close as they've been?
Yeah, I mean, he still publicly praises Elon Musk. And we saw like two weeks ago, I remember there was the Tesla cars that Trump showcased on the South Lawn of the White House. But there has been some fracturing within the administration with Elon Musk at the center of it. Elon Musk has publicly criticized some of the tariff policies that Trump has pushed and got into a kind of
back and forth with peter navarro who's the top white house trade advisor on x elon musk called navarro a total on one sense that shows you the security that musk feels you know obviously he's the biggest donor to trump and so he feels he can kind of say what he wants but also
You've got to wonder within the White House itself how long they want somebody there who's not necessarily on message, and he was creating news in that sort of way. During the cabinet meeting, as Trump was talking about Elon Musk and praising him, he talked about Musk at one point in past tense. He said, this guy did a fantastic job.
I thought that was a very interesting remark, almost looking back at Elon Musk's time here.
in the white house the special government employee status is a designation for people who work in administration or the white house for 130 days or less so that clock ends at the end of may now obviously trump if he wanted to he could keep him on board for as long as he wants he could just totally ignore that and just keep going but it could be a convenient excuse
to kind of move on at that point. Doge, of course, itself is operating through mid-2026. The plan is for them to cease after a year and a half of operations coinciding the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But Musk could roll off before then. Being in the White House has taken a toll.
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