Trump admin live updates: Dems react to Hegseth discussing Yemen strike in 2nd chat

When Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe’s phone was reviewed last month to preserve messages from his Signal application, a CIA official was unable to locate any “substantive messages,” instead finding only the name of the chat and changes to the app’s settings, according to a sworn filing submitted in court Monday evening.

Hurley Blankenship, CIA’s chief data officer, told a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging the use of Signal that he was only able to retrieve "residual administrative content" from Ratcliffe's personal Signal account.

“I used that terminology because the screenshot does not include substantive messages from the Signal chat; rather, it captures the name of the chat, ‘Houthi PC small group’, and reflects administrative notifications from 26 March and 28 March relating to changes in participants' administrative settings in this group chat, such as profile names and message settings,” Blankenship wrote.

The declaration comes after advocacy group American Oversight raised concerns that the settings on some officials’ phones might have triggered the messages to autodelete despite a federal requirement that the communications be preserved.

Officials were able to successfully preserve messages from the devices of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, according to sworn filings.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration is looking at the legality of sending U.S. citizens who are convicted of crimes to prisons in El Salvador or other places. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador since taking office.

While welcoming Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to the Oval Office, before members of the press entered the room, Trump told him to build more prisons as "homegrowns criminals" were next.

"I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places," Trump said, according to a livestream posted by Bukele's office on X.

Trump later told reporters directly that he was "studying the laws" regarding send American criminals to foreign prisons -- which legal experts have said would be unconstitutional.

"If we can do that, that's good. And I'm talking about violent people. I'm talking about really bad people. Really bad people," Trump added.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

The Trump administration has canceled Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Afghans, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended TPS for Afghans until May 20, but after that, according to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, the status will end.

"On March 21, 2025 (the statutory deadline), the Secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its TPS designation and so she terminated TPS for Afghanistan," according to McLaughlin. "The Secretary's decision was based on a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) review of the conditions in Afghanistan. As part of its review process, USCIS consulted with the Department of State."

USCIS will publish a notice on the federal register, and on May 20, Afghans will be deportable.

--ABC News' Luke Barr

Pete Marocco, the former acting head of USAID who oversaw thousands of cuts to the agency's programs and staff, has now left the State Department, according to a senior administration official familiar with the matter.

"Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars," the senior official told ABC News.

"We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission," they added.

Up until last week, Marocco had been working as the department's director of foreign assistance. As ABC News has previously reported, Marocco often did not see eye to eye with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top State officials.

--ABC News' Shannon Kingston