Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Trump Welcomes Salvadoran President, Continuing To Collaborate With Far-Right World Leaders

Trump Welcomes Salvadoran President, Continuing To Collaborate With Far-Right World Leaders

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 14: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House April 14, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON D.C. - President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would try to deport “as many as possible” immigrants or criminals to El Salvador. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele met with Trump at the White House to discuss the ongoing deportations of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador’s notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement (CETOC).

Trump has now deported 238 individuals to El Salvador under the 1879 Alien Enemies Act without notice or due process of law. President Bukele has agreed to help Trump with his deportation goals and received $6 million from the White House to continue these efforts.


Among the deportees is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father from Maryland, who was wrongfully deported on March 15 due to an “administrative error,” said the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 31 in court. The government alleges he is part of the MS-13 gang. Garcia came to the U.S. illegally, and his wife filed a restraining order against him in 2021, according to the Department of Homeland Security. However, in 2019, a judge granted him protection from deportation.

On April 10, the Supreme Court judged Garcia’s deportation illegal and ordered Donald Trump to “facilitate” his return to the United States.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” said the Salvadoran president. Bukele expressed that he does not want to release potentially dangerous prisoners. Furthermore, on April 12, Trump posted on Truth Social, “President Bukele has graciously accepted into his nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States. These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government.”

Bukele’s visit and Trump’s collaboration with him on deportations highlight the president’s willingness to partner with authoritarian and far-right heads of state when he can use them to help fulfill his aggressive agenda on everything from deporting immigrants to setting tariffs.

“El Salvador’s cooperation with the United States has become a model for others to work with this administration,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

El Salvador’s CETOC prison has been highlighted for its human rights abuses, systematic torture, and lack of due process. Since President Bukele was elected in 2019, he initiated a state of emergency to combat the increased gang activity in the country. Since then, 85,000 individuals have been detained, and only 1,000 have been convicted of a crime, according to Human Rights Watch.

Garcia has now been kept in the Salvadoran prison for 30 days and counting.

“Under President Bukele, human rights, democratic norms, and the rule of law have all but disappeared in El Salvador,” said Amanda Strayer, Senior Counsel for Accountability at Human Rights First, in a statement. “The United States should be holding Bukele’s government accountable for these serious violations, but instead the Trump administration is cozying up to and copying Bukele’s authoritarian playbook – rounding up people with no evidence, denying them any due process, and disappearing them in abusive Salvadoran prisons indefinitely.”

On April 9, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to the president demanding Garcia’s return. It states, “We find your administration’s actions to be wholly unacceptable. Your administration has not only disrupted the lives of his American wife and children, but also undermines the very foundations of our nation’s commitment to justice and due process.”

Before the Salvadoran president’s visit, the State Department changed El Salvador’s travel advisory from Level 2 to Level 1, signifying it's safe for travel and encouraging Americans to spend their tourist dollars in the country. This means that El Salvador is now considered safer for Americans than some European countries, including France and the United Kingdom.

Since the November election, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have both publicly supported other heads of state involved in human rights or criminal cases.

Trump called France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's conviction for embezzling $4.1 million out of the European Union a “witch hunt.”

As Le Pen led the polls for the next election, she was found guilty of using European funds to pay her assistants and other employees working for her party in France, the National Front. Under French law, Le Pen was sentenced to ineligibility to participate in the 2027 presidential campaign and up to four years in prison.

Along with the U.S. government’s support, the Kremlin also denounced her conviction, saying Europe was “trampling on democratic norms.”

Another far-right leader, Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, is also set to visit the White House on Thursday and will be negotiating tariffs with Donald Trump. She was the only European leader who attended Trump’s inauguration in January, and Trump has called Meloni one of his favorite European leaders.

Similar to Trump, Meloni has opted for the deportation of undocumented immigrants from Italy to Albania. In November 2024, Rome signed a $200 million treaty with Albania to create bigger and more secure immigration camps. Italian courts have challenged the legality of Meloni’s plan. The camps are now being used as a holding post for people whose asylum demands have been denied. Meloni’s far-right coalition remains hopeful that a decision by the European Union’s Court of Justice could pave the way for this policy to be implemented.

More recently, Meloni passed her controversial security bill by decree. The new bill would limit rights to freely assemble and provide protections for law enforcement accused of police brutality. In December 2024, when the bill arrived in the Italian Senate for a vote, the Council of Europe Commissioner of Human Rights denounced this bill and warned of potential human rights abuses.

In another instance of European political involvement, Elon Musk in January urged German voters to vote for the extreme right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party has been accused of being anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and homophobic.

One of its largest campaign promises is what they call “remigration,” the mass expulsion of immigrants. The AfD has advocated for the expulsion of German citizens who do not have German ancestry. As a result, German courts have ruled that a significant portion of the AfD is suspected of being an extremist organization. The AfD came in second place in the February elections.

Among other controversial leaders, Javier Milei of Argentina has also become Trump’s “favorite president.” He was the first world leader to visit Mar-a-Lago after the November election. Milei is highly admiring of Trump and agrees with the president on various measures.

When Mileil ascended to the presidency in 2023, he implemented an austerity plan that reduced government spending, resulting in a significant increase in poverty nationwide. Milei has also attacked the LGBTQ community, restricted freedom of assembly, and has severely increased law enforcement’s ability to use lethal force against suspected gang members.

In a parallel with Trump, Milei has opted out of the World Health Organization, refused to condemn Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, and has continuously fought against “wokeness.”

Amalia Huot-Marchand is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Read More

While Pledging To Clean Up Toxic Chemicals, EPA Guts Hundreds of Environmental Grants

EPA Administrator Zeldin speaks with reporters on Long Island, NY.

Courtesy EPA via Flickr.

While Pledging To Clean Up Toxic Chemicals, EPA Guts Hundreds of Environmental Grants

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration promised to combat toxic “forever chemicals,” while conversely canceling nearly 800 grants aimed at addressing environmental injustices, including in communities plagued with PFAS contamination.

In a court filing, the Environmental Protection Agency revealed for the first time that it intends to cancel 781 environmental justice grants, nearly double what had previously been disclosed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Policy Changes Could Derail Michigan’s Clean Energy Goals

New clean energy manufacturing plants, including for EV batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines, are being built across states like Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio.

Steve/Adobe Stock

Policy Changes Could Derail Michigan’s Clean Energy Goals

In recent years, Michigan has been aggressive in its approach to clean energy: It’s invested millions of dollars in renewable energy infrastructure, created training programs for jobs in the electric vehicle industry, and set a goal of moving the state to 100% carbon neutrality by 2050.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials aim to make the Great Lakes State a leader in clean energy manufacturing by bringing jobs and investments to local communities while also tackling pollution, which continues to wreak havoc on the environment.

Now Michigan’s clean energy efforts have seemingly hit a wall of uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s administration takes ongoing actions to roll back federal climate regulations.

“We’ve seen nothing less than an unprecedented, all-out assault on our environment and our democracy,” said Bentley Johnson, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters’ federal government affairs director.

The clean energy sector has grown rapidly in the United States since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Congress appropriated $370 billion under the IRA, and White House officials at the time touted it as the country’s largest investment in clean energy.

According to Climate Power, a national public relations and advocacy organization dedicated to climate justice, Michigan was the No. 1 state in the nation in 2024 in its number of clean energy projects; from 2022-2024, the state announced 74 projects totalling over 26,000 jobs and roughly $27 billion in federal funding.

Trump has long been critical of the country’s climate initiatives and development of clean energy technology. He’s previously made false claims that climate change is a hoax and wind turbines cause cancer. Since taking office again in January, Trump has tried to pause IRA funding and signed an executive order to boost coal production.

Additionally, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March that the agency had canceled more than 400 environmental justice grants to be used to improve air and water quality in disadvantaged communities. Senate Democrats, who released a full list of the canceled grants, accused the EPA of illegally terminating the contracts, through which funds were appropriated by Congress under the IRA. Of those 400 grants, 15 were allocated for projects in Michigan, including one to restore housing units in Kalamazoo and another to transform Detroit area food pantries and soup kitchens into emergency shelters for those in need.

Johnson said the federal government reversing course on the allotted funding has left community groups who were set to receive it in the lurch.

“That just seems wrong, to take away these public benefits that there was already an agreement — Congress has already appropriated or committed to spending this, to handing this money out, and the rug is being pulled out from under them,” Johnson said.

Climate Power has tracked clean energy projects across the country totaling $56.3 billion in projected funding and over 50,000 potential jobs that have been stalled or canceled since Trump was elected in November. Michigan accounts for seven of those projects, including Nel Hydrogen’s plans to build an electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Plymouth.

Nel Hydrogen announced an indefinite delay in the construction of its Plymouth factory in February 2025. Wilhelm Flinder, the company’s head of investor relations, communications, and marketing, cited uncertainty regarding the IRA’s tax credits for clean hydrogen production as a factor in the company’s decision, according to reporting by Hometownlife.com. The facility was expected to invest $400 million in the local community and to create over 500 people when it started production.

“America is losing nearly a thousand jobs a day because of Trump’s war against cheaper, faster, and cleaner energy. Congressional Republicans have a choice: get in line with Trump’s job-killing energy agenda or take a stand to protect jobs and lower costs for American families,” Climate Power executive director Lori Lodes said in a March statement.

Opposition groups make misleading claims about the benefits of renewable energy, such as the reliability of wind or solar energy and the land used for clean energy projects, in order to stir up public distrust, Johnson said.

In support of its clean energy goals, the state fronted some of its own taxpayer dollars for several projects to complement the federal IRA money. Johnson said the strategy was initially successful, but with sudden shifts in federal policies, it’s potentially become a risk, because the state would be unable to foot the bill entirely on its own.

The state still has its self-imposed clean energy goals to reach in 25 years, but whether it will meet that deadline is hard to predict, Johnson said. Michigan’s clean energy laws are still in place and, despite Trump’s efforts, the IRA remains intact for now.

“Thanks to the combination — I like to call it a one-two punch of the state-passed Clean Energy and Jobs Act … and the Inflation Reduction Act, with the two of those intact — as long as we don’t weaken it — and then the combination of the private sector and technological advancement, we can absolutely still make it,” Johnson said. “It is still going to be tough, even if there wasn’t a single rollback.”

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Keep ReadingShow less
A Missed Opportunity

Broken speech bubbles.

Getty Images, MirageC

A Missed Opportunity

en español

In a disappointing turn of events, Connecticut has chosen to follow the precedent set by President Donald Trump’s English-Only Executive Order, effectively disregarding the federal mandates of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Keep ReadingShow less
World Vaccine Congress Washington Tackles Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric in U.S. Politics

The World Vaccine Congress Washington is held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, April 23, 2025

(Erin Drumm/Medill New Service)

World Vaccine Congress Washington Tackles Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric in U.S. Politics

WASHINGTON—A vaccine policy expert challenged attendees of the World Vaccine Congress Washington to imagine a deadly disease spreading in various places around the country. We have the tools to stop it, but lawmakers were instead debating whether or not to use them.

In fact, that describes what is currently happening across the United States, according to Rehka Lakshmanan, M.H.A.

Keep ReadingShow less