The Trump administration has stepped up its defiance of a Supreme Court order to return a Maryland father removed to El Salvador as a result of what Trump officials called an “administrative error.” Kilmar Abrego Garcia was illegally transferred from the U.S. on March 15, then imprisoned without due process inside CECOT, the notorious Salvadoran mega-prison known for torture and other human rights abuses. On Monday, President Trump welcomed Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele to the White House to personally thank him for accepting some 300 people flown out of the U.S. since mid-March — Abrego Garcia among them. Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, Bukele — who’s called himself “the world’s coolest dictator” — said he does not have the power to release Abrego Garcia.

President Nayib Bukele: “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Reporter: “But you could release him inside El Salvador.”

President Nayib Bukele: “Yeah, but I’m not releasing — I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere, and you want us to go back into the — releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That’s not going to happen.”

During Monday’s talks, President Trump said he wants to transfer some violent criminals who are U.S. citizens to El Salvador, adding that Attorney General Pam Bondi is “studying the law.” Trump was caught on a hot microphone telling Bukele, “Homegrown criminals are next,” adding, “You’re going to need about five more places.”

In Maryland, protesters marched through downtown Baltimore Monday.

Martha Taylor: “This could happen to anyone. I mean, we need to worry about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but if he can be disappeared into a prison like this, just taken off the street by an administrative error, that could happen to any citizen, that could happen to any person, and President Trump would just say, 'Ah, I can't do anything.’ … So, I believe that fascism is here in America. I don’t believe there is the rule of law anymore. And I think everybody needs to wake up and get out in the streets.”

President Trump has ordered the military to take control of a narrow strip of the U.S.-Mexico border spanning some 2,000 noncontiguous miles from the Pacific Ocean to New Mexico. The land transfer is an attempt by the Trump administration to skirt federal law prohibiting U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement, including as immigration agents.

The ACLU reports the Trump administration is planning to dramatically expand immigrant detention facilities, including opening new immigration prisons in 10 states across the Midwest and West Coast. The plans were brought to life thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. In a statement, the ACLU warned the expansion would “further the Trump administration’s dystopian plans to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones.” Last week, The New York Times reported ICE is requesting new contracts worth $45 billion for for-profit prison companies, including GEO Group and CoreCivic, for the construction and operation of new detention centers.

Immigration authorities on Monday detained Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder from Palestine. Mahdawi was arrested in Vermont when he appeared for what he was told would be a naturalization test. Mahdawi had previously expressed fears the appointment, which came earlier than usual in the typical naturalization process, could end up being a trap, and made contact with Vermont’s three members of Congress to notify them of his concerns. All three of them condemned his detention Monday. Like Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi helped lead Columbia University campus protests against the genocide in Gaza. He was interviewed on “60 Minutes” in December of 2023.

Mohsen Mahdawi: “To be antisemitic is unjust, is unjust. And the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand, because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Here in New York, hundreds of members of Jewish Voice for Peace and others protested outside the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Monday, the third night of the Jewish holiday of Passover, as alarm spread over the seizure of Mohsen Mahdawi.

Bridgette Bissonnette: “My name is Bridgette Bissonnette, and I have a great deal of family that means a great deal to me who are Jewish. And, you know, the Jewish principles are very much about liberation for all people and that this is a movement. And this is not a movement that we can be deporting. This is not a movement that involves hate. This is not a movement that involves violence. So, Passover is about the liberation of people. And we stand here for all people to say, 'Not ever again, not anyone.'”

The Trump administration said it’s freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the Ivy League institution defied Trump’s order to eliminate all DEI initiatives and further crack down on Palestinian rights protests, including reporting international students to federal authorities. Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the school community Monday, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. … No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

In Gaza, Palestinian health officials say the confirmed death toll from Israel’s assault has topped 51,000. More than 10,000 others are missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Over the past 24 hours, Israeli attacks killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 69 others. Among the dead are displaced children and parents who were blown up as they sheltered in tents in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

Bashir Al-Hamida: “At around exactly midnight, a missile fell on this tent where women and children were sheltering. We were surprised when it hit. There are a number of martyrs, children and women from the tents. This area was considered safe based on the instructions of the Israeli army, but we were surprised to find that this area is not safe. There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”

Earlier today, negotiators with Hamas said they were looking at a ceasefire proposal submitted by Israel to Egyptian and Qatari mediators that includes new demands for Hamas to disarm. A Hamas spokesperson told Al Jazeera the demand was “not acceptable to even hear.”

In Sudan’s western Darfur region, the U.N. reports attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed at least 300 people in refugee camps over the weekend. The victims included children, as well as 10 humanitarian aid workers from Relief International Sudan. The RSF claimed on Sunday it took control over Zamzam camp. Some 400,000 additional people are believed to have been displaced in the area just over the last few days. The surrounding area of El Fasher is in the midst of a famine, affecting some 637,000 people.

Today marks two years since the devastating civil war erupted between the Sudanese army and the RSF. Aid groups are warning of a spiraling humanitarian disaster, with some 13 million forcibly displaced, widespread reports of sexual and ethnically motivated violence, and a worsening hunger crisis. This is Shaun Hughes of the World Food Programme.

Shaun Hughes: “All these challenges are coming at a time when resources for humanitarian response globally are reducing. We know that it is not possible to stop a famine with food alone. You need healthcare. You need water. You need sanitation. So the whole response needs to be well supported in order to be able to turn this around and stem the tide of famine.”

Foreign ministers are gathering in London today to discuss a diplomatic path toward a ceasefire in Sudan.

The State Department official who oversaw the dismantling of USAID has left the agency after less than three months on the job. Under Pete Marocco’s watch, over 80% of USAID’s programs have been canceled and the bulk of its staff fired. The cuts have already led to deaths in some countries as health experts warn many more are to be expected due to cuts in essential services including vaccines and other preventive healthcare. Last week, the World Food Programme called U.S. cuts to emergency food assistance “a death sentence for millions.”

The White House has asked Congress to claw back $9.3 billion of previously approved funding to USAID, public broadcasting and other programs. That includes $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-supported nonprofit company that provides matching funds to broadcasters including NPR, PBS and community radio and TV stations. In a statement, the White House accused the broadcasters of spreading “radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'” Republican leaders are expected to take up Trump’s request for a rescission bill, which needs only a simple majority to pass, when lawmakers return from a two-week recess.

On Monday, the White House barred Associated Press journalists from covering Trump’s Oval Office meeting with El Salvador’s president, despite last week’s court order forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, Trump has demanded that the FCC revoke CBS’s license and impose fines, after “60 Minutes” aired segments critical of Trump.

Here in New York, jury selection got underway Monday in a retrial of a case brought by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who sued The New York Times and its former editorial page editor for libel. The Times argued in court that its editorial falsely linking Palin to a 2011 mass shooting was an honest mistake that was corrected quickly.

Employees of the Internal Revenue Service are bracing for mass layoffs, with the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force plans affecting roughly 100,000 IRS workers expected to take effect by the end of the week. The Washington Post reports the cuts could eliminate nearly a quarter of the tax agency’s workforce, including the elimination of the Office of Civil Rights and Compliance. An analysis by the humanitarian charity Oxfam America found cuts to the IRS could help the wealthiest taxpayers avoid an additional $30 million in taxes per day, on average. Today is the deadline for filing personal income taxes. One IRS employee told CNN, “There’s going to be a huge backlog probably worse than it was during COVID.”

Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Monday to defend Meta’s dominance in the social media landscape as a highly anticipated antitrust trial kicked off in Washington, D.C. The case was brought by the Federal Trade Commission, which alleges Meta, the parent company of Facebook, created a social media monopoly when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. If Meta loses the trial, it could be forced to sell off those platforms.

Meta has been under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as a whistleblower book from a former Facebook public policy director has made international headlines. Meta moved to block the author of “Careless People,” Sarah Wynn-Williams, from promoting her book in the U.S. But Meta’s efforts to silence Wynn-Williams did not prevent her from testifying to a Senate panel last week. Among other things, she revealed how Meta worked with advertisers to target teenage users, including with weight loss and other such products if users displayed signs of body insecurities. She also detailed Meta’s use of censorship.

Sarah Wynn-Williams: “I witnessed Meta work hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics. When Beijing demanded that Facebook delete the account of a prominent Chinese dissident living on American soil, they did it, and then lied to Congress when asked about the incident in a Senate hearing.”