First at TPM: In Shift, Trump Admin Returns Wrongfully Deported Man

Posted on by David Kurtz

Not How Abrego Garcia Was Handled

In what appears to be a dramatic reversal from its reaction to other wrongful deportations this year, the Trump administration has quietly returned Faustino Pablo Pablo from Guatemala, according to a court order issued in the case yesterday.

The administration was under a court-imposed deadline of Dec. 12 to return the Guatemalan national. He was apparently returned on Dec. 11, according to the order issued by U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama of the Western District of Texas.

The precise account of what happened in the habeas case isn’t easily accessed by the public in court records (Politico has a request pending with the court to make the records of the case available online.) But the basic outlines of the case emerge in the publicly available orders from Judge Guaderrama.

Pablo was wrongfully deported on Nov. 20 despite an order of withholding issued more than a decade ago by an immigration judge that barred his removal to Guatemala. The immigration judge found that Pablo had “shown it is more likely than not that he will be tortured by, or with the consent or acquiescence of, the Guatemalan government.”

When Pablo, who has lived in California, showed up for a routine check-in appointment with ICE on Nov. 5, he was detained “without notice or explanation,” according to court records in the case. On Nov. 17, Pablo was transferred to the El Paso, Texas, as a precursor to his removal.

On Nov. 18, Pablo filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, according to court records. On Nov. 20, he sought an injunction from the court prohibiting the government from removing him from the Western District of Texas while his habeas case was pending.

By then it was too late.

Earlier that same day, at 5 a.m., Pablo was transported to the airport, court records show. At 6 a.m., he was put on a direct flight to Guatemala.

By the time the court, later in the day, issued the injunction barring Pablo’s removal, he had already landed in Guatemala City.

Unlike the very similar case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March despite an immigration judge order barring his removal there, the Trump administration conceded Pablo’s removal was “unlawful” and moved to rectify the situation.

The administration assured the court on Dec. 3 that Pablo was “tentatively scheduled” for a Dec. 4 return flight. When Pablo wasn’t returned on Dec. 4, Judge Guaderrama went ballistic, decrying the “blatant lawlessness” of Pablo’s removal. At that point, Guaderrama gave the administration until Dec. 12 to get Pablo back.

There was some movement after that. On Dec. 10, the administration notified that court that the Guatemala Migration Institute had granted Pablo a passport, ICE had approved him for parole back into the United States; he was booked for a return flight on Dec. 11.

“On December 12, 2025, [the government] filed another Declaration informing the Court that [Pablo] arrived in the United States on December 11, 2025,” the judge said in the new order yesterday. Pablo’s attorneys had said they would withdraw their “Motion for Civil Contempt and Sanctions” if Pablo was returned, and the judge has now deemed it as withdrawn.

It’s not clear if Pablo is out of the woods yet. As in the Abrego Garcia case, the administration has threatened to remove Pablo to a third country upon his return to the United States. “One thing is certain: he is not going to be able to remain in the U.S. We will deport him to another country,” the bombastic DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Dec. 6, before Pablo’s return.

The Mass Deportation-Tech Complex

404 Media: How a US Citizen Was Scanned With ICE’s Facial Recognition Tech

Fellow Judge Testifies Against Dugan

State Judge Kristela L. Cervera took the stand for the prosecution yesterday during the trial of Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly interfering with the ICE’s courthouse arrest of a undocumented immigrant. (For real time coverage of the trial, Adam Klasfeld has you covered.)

White House Uses Tragedy to Do More Racism

The Trump White House is continuing to use the shooting of two national guardsmen in D.C. as an excuse to inflict more draconian restrictions on the immigration of people of color, adding 20 more countries to its travel ban list:

Here is a map of the affected countries (excluding Tonga), to give you a sense of how much this new ban restricts immigration from Africa in particular.Of the newly-added country, Nigeria faces the largest impact, with tens of thousands of visas issued every year to Nigerians.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T20:58:34.143Z

Quote of the Day

“If [Russ] Vought is the nation’s shadow president for domestic policy, then Stephen Miller is its shadow president for internal security. Miller, Trump’s top domestic policy adviser, is using the president’s authority to try to transform the ethnic mix of the country — to make America white again, or at least whiter than it is now.”–Jamelle Bouie

Coast Guard Performs Double Reversal

After a WaPo report last month that the Coast Guard would no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols, the military service reversed course. But it subsequently went ahead and implemented the policy that downgrades those symbols to merely “potentially divisive,” the WaPo now reports.

More Fallout Over Carlson-Fuentes Interview

Two more trustees have resigned from the Heritage Foundation’s governing board in the protest over President Kevin D. Roberts’ defense of Tucker Carlson’s October interview with antisemite Nick Fuentes.

Venezuela Colombia Watch

All five of the unlawful strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats over the past month were in the eastern Pacific, not the Caribbean, the NYT reports.

Jack Smith Testifies Today

In one of the abusive investigate-the-investigators schemes, former Special Counsel Jack Smith relented to House GOP demands and will give testimony today behind closed doors on his Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago probes, despite his demands for a public hearing.

ICYMI

Mother Jones: New Justice Department Voting Rights Chief Had Prior Job Suspension for Ties to Election Deniers

The Destruction: NCAR Edition

Meteorologists and climate scientists are aghast that that Trump administration, spearheaded by OMB Director Russ Vought, is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

Federal Judge May Rein in Trump Ballroom

In the lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said he would hold the Trump administration to its pledge to submit the vanity ballroom project for federal review and hold a hearing in January on whether to halt construction. But for now he let below-ground construction continue with a warning: “The judge did caution administration officials that they should be prepared to reverse the below-ground steps if he later concludes they sought to lock in a more expansive project than is eventually permitted.”

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Pam Bondi Dismissed Charges Against a Surgeon Who Falsified Vaccine Cards. It Emboldened Others With Similar Cases.

Posted on by Allegra Kirkland

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Dr. Kirk Moore had been on trial for five days, accused of falsifying COVID-19 vaccination cards and throwing away the government-supplied doses.

The Utah plastic surgeon faced up to 35 years in prison if the jury found him guilty on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States. Testimony had paused for the weekend when Moore’s lawyer called him early one Saturday this July with what felt to him like unbelievable news.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered Utah prosecutors to drop all charges, abruptly ending his two-and-a-half year court battle.

Continue reading “Pam Bondi Dismissed Charges Against a Surgeon Who Falsified Vaccine Cards. It Emboldened Others With Similar Cases.” →

Is Trump About to Unleash the Kraken on Venezuela?

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

In late November and December 2020, after all hope had faded from Trump’s re-election bid, his supporters were left with the “Kraken.” It was thought to be a monster of evidence that would prove, once and for all and to all skeptics, that massive voter fraud, interference, and manipulation had perpetrated a delusion on the American people, leading them into the false belief that Joe Biden won the election that year.

Continue reading “Is Trump About to Unleash the Kraken on Venezuela?” →

‘Trump’s Totally My Bitch!’ and Other Wild Quotes From Susie Wiles

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Our bespoke piñata of the day is the Susie Wiles piece in Vanity Fair (they must be excited to move on from Olivia …) We’re seeing the standard incantations of “fake news” from none other than Wiles herself. Trump’s Cabinet secretaries have all lined up to post tweets repeating the claim, intoning the Trump-Wiles catechism as though they’d just emerged from a fast-forward struggle session with a pack of feral MAGA toughs. I’ve started making my way through the morselly excerpts, as perhaps you have or are too. What struck me here was perhaps not even so much the quotes as the venue.

Few American publications are more at the heart of the cosmopolitan world of America than Vanity Fair. That is not liberal. Small-c cosmopolitan is different but overlapping. But it is perhaps even more than “liberal” what MAGA is talking about when it denounces the “coastal elite.” Certainly they’re talking more about that than, like, People for the American Way or Americans for Democratic Action or Heather Cox Richardson. Susie Wiles is no fool. And while she may — as in a very low de minimis chance — have gotten a touch injudicious in a few quotes, she certainly knew with perfect clarity what Vanity Fair is.

Continue reading “‘Trump’s Totally My Bitch!’ and Other Wild Quotes From Susie Wiles” →

Latest Jobs Report Suggests Tariffs Harming Blue Collar Work, Counter to White House Narrative

Posted on by Layla A. Jones

Tuesday morning gave us the latest set of data indicating that President Donald Trump’s tariffs regime is not, in fact, making manufacturing great again. The November jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested that the tariffs are not protecting blue collar jobs, and may well be hiking prices this holiday season. And while these facts may not come as a surprise to experts or mindful observers, the BLS employment situation report reveals information that flies in the face of what Trump and his economic Cabinet members have been feeding the public.

Tuesday’s jobs report appears to show an economy in continued stagnation, if not decline, while sectors particularly sensitive to Trump’s tariffs appear to be strained, as evidenced by job cuts.

It’s yet another example — similar to Trump’s assertion that Americans’ “affordability” concerns are the product of “a hoax” — of the way in which the economic reality faced by people on the ground is in considerable tension with the narrative spun by the White House.

The economy added 64,000 jobs in November, a tick above the about 50,000 analysts were expecting from the first almost on-time jobs report since the six-week government shutdown halted BLS operations. The 4.6% unemployment rate, however, was higher than expected, and is higher than the rate this time last year.

In fact, Americans haven’t seen a 4.6% unemployment rate since September 2021, when employment was normalizing after the historic economic shock caused by the pandemic. Prior to April 2020, the U.S. hasn’t had a 4.6% unemployment rate since February 2017, according to historic BLS data. The unemployment rate has been increasing since June (though data for October does not exist because of the shutdown), the longest stretch of rising unemployment since 2009 during the global financial crisis. During Trump’s first term, the unemployment rate mostly continued to fall, following the downward trend established during former President Barack Obama’s two terms, according to historic BLS data. 

In addition to the ominous upward joblessness trend, the sectors where that job loss is concentrated are those that the president and his men have hailed as Trump’s priority.

The number of blue collar jobs across industries decreased between October and November, according to the jobs report. Mining and logging occupations shed 4,000 jobs month over month, and are down even more compared to this time last year. Manufacturing is down 5,000 jobs, and down about 80,000 roles year over year, with losses in food, textile, apparel, paper and chemical mills among them.

In October, a White House press release argued that “America’s manufacturing sector is surging forward with unprecedented momentum,” before announcing future commitments secured from companies like Whirlpool and Stellantis auto manufacturers. The momentum touted by the White House has yet to be felt on the ground, based on Tuesday’s report.

Trade and transportation were two additional sectors hit particularly hard. General merchandise retailers — the Walmarts, Costcos and Targets  — shed about 7,000 jobs, but were up slightly compared to last November. And transportation took a major hit this holiday season, with couriers and messengers seeing double-digit decline.

In a POLITICO Q&A published in early December, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer touted Trump’s trade policies as income drivers for blue collar workers.

“But where trade comes into it is when you have a trade system in place that protects U.S. jobs, you get higher incomes,” Greer said. “So the blue collar wages are up this year. That’s what matters.”

Federal data published last week puts an asterisk on this claim, too. Total compensation for manufacturing workers was up 0.8% for the three months ending in September 2025. But that industry saw the exact same percentage increase during the same period in 2024 and 2023. Wage growth for transportation and material moving was down this year compared to the previous two, while compensation increase for construction workers was up slightly, just 0.1% year over year.

Construction jobs, however, are increasing. The industry added 28,000 jobs month over month, and has a higher number of jobs compared to this time last year. Analysts understand this gain to be generally associated with data center construction and other AI-related building projects. Experts have also mulled the risks that could come with the U.S. economy and building industry being propped up so significantly by just one driver.

Corporate investment in AI-related growth, like data center construction, boosted U.S. GDP by more than 1% in the second quarter of 2025, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. The industry has been such a boon to the economy that chief global strategist at BCA Research Peter Berezin told the Journal it could be single-handedly keeping the U.S. from an economic crash.

“It’s certainly plausible that the economy would already be in a recession” without investments in AI, Berezin told the Journal.

Even as analysis poured in, Trump officials continued to spin, painting a familiar,  disconnected view of the economy.

“November’s jobs report shows our economy continues to gain momentum despite the economic mess President Trump inherited from the Biden administration and the reckless Democrat shutdown,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a released statement.
Tuesday’s numbers also aren’t the end of the story. BLS revised down its employment estimates for August and September by a combined 33,000, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at a press conference last week said the Fed believes BLS numbers may be overstating hiring by about 20,000 jobs per month.

Trump Chief of Staff Admits to Retribution Campaign

Posted on by David Kurtz

‘When There’s an Opportunity, He Will Go for It’

In an extraordinary series of interviews over the first few months of the Trump II presidency, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has admitted that President Trump is engaged in retribution against his political foes, even as she tried to tiptoe around the implications of her concession.

While Wiles’ admission is couched as a denial that retribution is occurring, the critical quote in the two-part Vanity Fair series by Chris Whipple includes key concessions that Trump is engaged in what at one point she calls “score settling”:

“I don’t think he’s on a retribution tour,” she said. “A governing principle for him is, ‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else.’ And so people that have done bad things need to get out of the government. In some cases, it may look like retribution. And there may be an element of that from time to time. Who would blame him? Not me.”

Asked about the bogus mortgage fraud allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Wiles replied: “Well, that might be the one retribution.”

As for the campaign to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, Wiles said:

“I mean, people could think it does look vindictive. I can’t tell you why you shouldn’t think that.” Wiles said of Trump: “I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution. But when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”

With numerous targets of the Trump retribution campaign making claims of vindictive prosecution against the Trump DOJ, Wiles’ stunningly casual admissions of presidential abuse of power are likely to soon make their way into legal filings, providing an arguably critical link in the causal chain between the president and the Justice Department.

Whipple is the author of a 2017 book that profiled White House chiefs of staff from Nixon to Obama, which may have given him the the entrée to such a candid series of 11 interviews with Wiles.

At one point in the spring, Wiles told Whipple of Trump:  “We have a loose agreement that the score settling will end before the first 90 days are over.”

Asked about that by the NYT after the Vanity Fair articles came out, Wiles said: “You don’t want it to get in the way of the real agenda. And so, loosely, let’s get it all going within 90 days. Which we did. Now, the justice system works slowly and so even if it was initiated in 90 days, it could be a long time before it’s done.”

Bongino on the Way Out at FBI?

Dan Bongino has been on his way back to podcasting since almost as soon as he became deputy FBI director, but now the NYT reports there is at least a timeframe for his departure … sorta:

Mr. Bongino has said he plans to leave his job as soon as this week or as late as mid-January, according to three people with knowledge of his plans.

One sign it might be sooner rather than later: Mr. Bongino has been sending office knickknacks and other possessions back to Florida, where he intends to resume his lucrative career as a pro-Trump media broadcaster in time for the midterm elections, they said.

But Mr. Bongino’s departure plans, like his brief tenure at the bureau, have been steeped in vacillation and melodrama.

Wisconsin Fake Electors Case Can Proceed

The state prosecution of the Wisconsin fake electors scheme against lawyer James Troupis and 2020 Trump campaign staffer Mike Roman can proceed, a judge ruled Monday. The judge delayed a decision about whether the case can also proceed against lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.

Islamophobia Unleashed

At least two GOP members of Congress are using the terrorist attack on Australian Jews by suspected radical Islamists to call for the removal of all Muslims from the United States:

  • Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL): “Islam is not a religion. It’s a cult. Islamists aren’t here to assimilate. They’re here to conquer. Stop worrying about offending the pearl clutchers. We’ve got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we’ll become the United Caliphate of America.”
  • Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL): “It is time for a Muslim travel ban, radical deportations of all mainstream Muslim legal and illegal immigrants, and citizenship revocations wherever possible. Mainstream Muslims have declared war on us. The least we can do is kick them the hell out of America.”

Targeting an entire religion, revoking citizenship on the basis of a disfavored faith, making it impossible to ever be a “real” non-Christian citizen … these are the trappings of white nationalism.

Good Read

Thomas Zimmer: Trumpism Is at War with the Idea of a Citizenry of Equals

The Retribution: Mark Kelly Edition

A remarkable quote from an unnamed Department of Defense official confirming that the Pentagon has escalated its retribution campaign against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) by turning its preliminary review into a command investigation: “Retired Captain Kelly is currently under investigation for serious allegations of misconduct. Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings.”

Notice how the official manages to smear Kelly while in the process of purporting to disavow any smearing of Kelly.

The alleged “misconduct” is Kelly’s participation in a video that urged service members to abide by their legal obligation not to follow illegal orders. The video infuriated the Trump White House. Kelly is being targeted because, as a former Navy captain, there is in theory a route available by which he could be ordered back to active duty and the military’s power over him could be abused to retaliate against him for his lawful actions as a sitting senator.

Venezuela Watch: New Boat Attacks

The U.S. conducted unlawful strikes on three more suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing eight people.

The Purge: Pentagon Edition

At the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the biggest reorganization of the Pentagon in decades would consolidate power in the hands of fewer presumably loyalist flag officers and reduce the number of combatant commands from 11 to eight, the WaPo reports.

Quote of the Day

Henry Farrell, on President Trump’s new National Security Strategy:

The Trump administration’s new strategy for the world is a kind of Groyper Grand Strategy Cosplay, which simultaneously purports to be a guide to specific policy. It is set to fail, even by its own ludicrous and wildly offensive standards. As I used to tell my students, a National Security Strategy speaks to three audiences: the U.S. government itself; allies and friends, and adversaries. The new strategy can’t be coherently implemented by the first, will alienate the second still further, and will open up opportunities to the third.

The Corruption: The Most WSJ of Headlines

“CEOs Are Learning to Live With Trump’s Turn to State Capitalism“

Joe Ely, 1947-2025

The Lord of the Highway is dead at 78. From his earliest work with The Flatlanders to opening for The Clash to his long, low-key solo career, Joe Ely made his own way. His cover of Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes On Forever” belongs on every road trip playlist, but this vintage 1981 tune might best capture his distinct throwback sound:

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Secretive Rapid Response Networks Are Operating in Communities ‘Terrorized’ By ICE Raids

Posted on by Hunter Walker

The school was on lockdown. 

Nov. 12 was supposed to be an evening of youth soccer at P.S. 1, a public elementary school in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Yet the fun and games in the school’s gym turned dark when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up outside and took someone off the streets. 

According to multiple witnesses, the federal officers stayed parked on the corner for roughly two hours in three cars with tinted windows. Their presence outside the school where nearly 90% of the students are Latino sparked fear and led many community members to shelter inside. 

Aaron Kraus, one of the soccer coaches, said the experience left him questioning whether the games could continue. 

“It’s insane that something like a youth soccer event in a school is a place they’re going to park outside of and try to target people. That’s just mindblowing,” Kraus said. “Part of me is like, should we stop? But why should we stop something that’s good for the community?”

Parents who were there throughout the evening said they believe the ICE agents took one man from a nearby building. They were left wondering why the agents then chose to stay near the scene.

“I don’t know why you would stay outside a school. There are kids here and people are scared,” one man who said his child was playing inside told TPM. The father declined to give his name due to his concerns about the heavy-handed law enforcement presence. 

These fraught questions and tense moments have become a part of life around the country since Donald Trump returned to the White House and began to implement his mass deportation agenda. In New York City, Trump’s policies have led to dramatic raids and chaos in the courts. 

Yet when the parents and children stepped out of P.S. 1 on that chilly night, they were not confronted by the sight of the masked agents. Instead, they saw a group of nearly a dozen activists who rushed onto the scene after being notified by encrypted chat groups. These rapid response networks have sprung up around the city. They are a key component of the Undocumented Underground that is resisting mass deportation in New York and around the nation.  

Continue reading “Secretive Rapid Response Networks Are Operating in Communities ‘Terrorized’ By ICE Raids” →

Trump’s Vile Remarks on Rob Reiner’s Death Prove a Bridge Too Far For Some GOPers

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

Shocking Even For Him

In the wake of President Trump’s “inappropriate and disrespectful” remarks — making what appears to be a tragic double murder of director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele about himself and his political foes — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) challenged his Republican colleagues and the White House to “defend” the president’s completely vile Truth Social post.

Continue reading “Trump’s Vile Remarks on Rob Reiner’s Death Prove a Bridge Too Far For Some GOPers” →

Are the Broligarchs Ready to Be on the Downward Turn of the Wheel?

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Today, I want to share some additional thoughts with you on this ranging topic of tech lords and predators, the conquistadors and pirates in our midst. It’s a point that is perhaps the most visible part of the current moment, but because of that, paradoxically, hardest to see clearly. It’s been more than a century since the men at the highest pinnacles of the American economy so visibly and directly intervened in the country’s politics. An element of that is the highly personalist nature of the big tech monopolies. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t just a CEO or plurality owner. He is Facebook. He’s the founder, the driving mind since the beginning. I believe that voting rights are structured in such a way at Meta that in terms of control as opposed to equity stakes he is in total control. Meta cannot be taken away from him. Whether or not voting rights are precisely the same, a similar story prevails at Amazon, Google, certainly X and all of Musk’s companies. We haven’t seen anything like that since the Gilded Age and the Robber Barons, when big names like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan and Rockefeller similarly owned, drove and personified the great corporate behemoths and monopolies of the day.

For many decades, certainly since the Second World War, even the more politically- and ideologically-minded corporations kept their political spending and their exertions in the background. Perhaps they gave most of their money to Republicans but they’d give to Democrats too just to keep them mostly on side.

What we began to see in the late Biden administration and then to an almost mind-boggling degree through 2025 is not just the big tech titans cozying up to Trump and doing so visibly, but making themselves what we might call main characters in the American Political Cinematic Universe. There’s really nothing like it in our history. I know many friends who are into MMA and the UFC. My sons are into it. Not my thing. But great if it’s yours. But if you’re Mark Zuckerberg and you take ringside seats at a UFC match with Trump friend and UFC CEO Dana White, you’re sending a very clear and specific message and you’re sending it far outside the channels where most traditional political messaging takes place. Even more if you put White on your board. And the same applies to going on Joe Rogan’s show and talking about a rights movement for “high testosterone males.” Yes, Zuckerberg got into MMA before the so-called “vibe shift.” But not in this politics-inflected way. We’ve seen countless examples of this in so many different contexts, starting with that unforgettable inauguration image where the seats of greatest distinction were reserved for the centi-billionaire tech titans. Government of, by and for them.

Continue reading “Are the Broligarchs Ready to Be on the Downward Turn of the Wheel?” →

Remembering Rob Reiner

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I’m not usually one for rubber-necking a celebrity death or commenting on it here. I feel I need to say something about Rob Reiner. It’s hard for me to think about someone in public life whose contributions were so weighted in the direction of humor and joy and whose final fate was so much one of horror and heartbreak. When I put together the pieces of that collision last night I couldn’t quite process it.

Continue reading “Remembering Rob Reiner” →