Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has a 5-year-old disabled child who is also a U.S. citizen, has no criminal record in the United States, according to his attorney. The Trump administration does not claim he has a criminal record, but called him a "danger to the community" and an active member of MS-13, the Salvadoran gang that Trump has declared a foreign terrorist organization.

Sandoval-Moshenberg said that those charges are false, and that the gang label stems from a 2019 incident when Abrego Garcia and three other men were detained in a Home Depot parking lot by a police detective in Prince George's County, Maryland. During questioning, one of the men told officers that Abrego Garcia was a gang member, but the man offered no proof and police said they didn't believe him, filings show. Police did not identify him as a gang member.

Abrego Garcia was not charged with a crime, but he was handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the arrest to face deportation. In those proceedings, the government claimed that a reliable informant had identified him as a ranking member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia and his family hired an attorney and fought the government's attempt to deport him. He received "withholding of removal" six months later, a protected status.

It is not a path to permanent U.S. residency, but it means the government won't deport him back to his home country, because he's more likely than not to face harm there.

Abrego Garcia has had no contact with any law-enforcement agency since his release, according to his attorney. He works full time as a union sheet-metal apprentice, has complied with requirements to check in annually with ICE, and cares for his 5-year-old son, who has autism and a hearing defect, and is unable to communicate verbally.

Adam Klasfeld
@klasfeldreports.com

A federal judge has denied the U.S. Institute of Peace's request to block the transfer their $500M headquarters to the government at no cost.

The transfer is "done," making the request "moot," she says.

Federal Judge Allows DOGE to Take Over $500 Million Office Building For Free

It's the culmination of a weeks-long standoff between Elon Musk's DOGE team and the United States Institute of Peace.

On Tuesday, US district judge Beryl Howell effectively allowed the transfer of the headquarters building of the United States Institute of Peace to the General Services Administration.

FTA:

What is surprising is how little has been made of the similarities between Trump's efforts and those undertaken by Bill Clinton more than 30 years ago. Clinton appointed his vice president, Al Gore, to undertake a so-called National Performance Review (NPR), aimed at reinventing government. The Gore Commission (as it became known) was also aimed at streamlining and reducing the size of the federal government, but there was more to it. In many ways, what Gore set out to do was even more ambitious than Musk's chainsaw approach.

Like Trump, Clinton and Gore used presidential directives and executive orders to implement many of their downsizing efforts. But unlike the current effort, the cutting didn't start until they had gone through a six-month study process and developed a blueprint of how to best reinvent the federal government. Government agencies were brought into the process to determine the best ways that efficiencies could be realized. In fact, the effort was led by some 250 federal employees that remained on their agency payrolls.

"If the administration is working not to save money but rather to destroy the government, the cuts that threaten the well-being of American citizens make more sense."

Rogue SSA
@alt-ssa.altgov.info

This is so bad. Worse than people can imagine.

When you work in our systems, you're generally working in dozens of separate programs that interact with the COBOL architecture. Every one of those would need to be rebuilt. Even if they succeed in migrating, no one would be able to do their jobs.

Video at link:

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com
Mike Lawler on Trump possibly running for a third time: "As a Republican, I and many would not be open to the idea of Barack Obama running for a third term. So I think folks have to be careful here."

Background info on the Tesla protests:

Protests hit Tesla dealerships across the world in challenge to Elon Musk

From Australia to Europe and the US, demonstrators rallied against carmaker's dismantling of US federal government

On Saturday, with more than 200 events planned worldwide, protests kicked off midday in front of Tesla showrooms in Australia and New Zealand and then rippled across Europe in countries including Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Each rally was locally organized with original themes. In Ireland, it was "Smash the Fash", and Switzerland had "Down with Doge". Photos posted to Bluesky by Tesla Takedown showed demonstrators in San Jose, California, close to where Tesla was previously headquartered, and Austin, Texas, where its headquarters are now.

FTA:

Over the weekend, thousands of people joined the Tesla Takedown' protest movement at the company's showrooms across the country. At the same time, a much smaller number of Elon Musk supporters turned out at Tesla locations for a counterprotest movement that some participants dubbed Tesla Shield.'

While the protest movement comprises people angered at Elon Musk's role in the dismantling of federal government agencies, the counterprotest movement that showed up this weekend was peopled mostly by MAGA supporters. Among them were an array of far-right extremists, including members of the Proud Boys, armed militias, and at one event in Idaho, a guy dressed as Hitler.

FTA:

Imagine you had pretty much unlimited power over the government and wanted to save taxpayers' money. You could:

Carefully study government operations to understand what works and what doesn't

Make targeted improvements based on data and evidence

Track results to ensure changes actually deliver savings

Or you could do what Elon Musk did with DOGE: declare everything wasteful, start firing people at random, and claim you're saving billions through pure destruction.

"If the administration is working not to save money but rather to destroy the government, the cuts that threaten the well-being of American citizens make more sense."

FTA:

There are so many layers of voter suppression built into the SAVE Act that you could call it the foundational structure.

Voter Suppression Challenge #1: You have to schlepp to whatever agency oversees your state's voting with your documents. This means no more voter drives or online or mail-in registration. It also presents a real-world challenge. More than 60 million rural voters will have to drive an average of 260 miles simply to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Meanwhile, urban voters, who often don't own cars, will be forced to commute upward of two hours on public transportation.

Voter Suppression Challenge #2: You need to possess what the Republicans deem a valid form of ID. Sure, the letter of the act lists five legitimate forms of identification but most forms of government-issued identification don't list your birthplace. Scratch your REAL ID as a form of identification, or your military ID, or your tribal ID. You also can't use your birth certificate unless it is certified with an embossed governmental seal. (This analysis from the Democratic Party explains just how ridiculous their requirements really are.) A passport is one of the few forms of government ID that specifies where a person was born but ... Only half of American citizens have a passport.

Voter Suppression Challenge #3 for the win: If you are using your birth certificate, the name must match your current name. But a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that 84% of women - as many as 69 million - have changed their last name so it no longer matches their birth certificate. Salon writes:

"This would be a back-door ban on voting for any woman who took her husband's last name and doesn't have a passport ... "