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Trump admin live updates: Trump strikes deals with law firms totaling $600M

The agreements were with five law firms for pro bono work.

Last Updated: April 13, 2025, 11:58 PM EDT

President Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting with his top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as Elon Musk, on Thursday.

It follows Trump on Wednesday changing course on his tariff policy, instituting a 90-day pause in higher taxes for most countries while ramping up the rate against China to 145%.

On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders pushed through a budget blueprint to fund Trump's domestic agenda despite some GOP hard-liner opposition.

Apr 13, 2025, 7:19 PM EDT

DOJ says federal courts can't direct Trump admin to conduct foreign relations

Federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given matter, the Department of Justice said on Sunday in response to a motion for relief by attorneys for Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador.

This undated photo provided by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
CASA via AP

"Plaintiffs' additional relief runs headlong through this constitutional limit," said attorneys for the Department of Justice in a filing. "They ask this Court to order Defendants to make demands of the El Salvadoran government, dispatch personnel onto the soil of an independent, sovereign nation and send an aircraft into the airspace of a sovereign foreign nation to extract a citizen of that nation from its custody."

The requests by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, the DOJ said, involve "interactions with a foreign sovereign -- and potential violations of that sovereignty."

"Plaintiffs invite this Court to 'exceed' its own 'authority' in the precise sort of way the Supreme Court cautioned against," DOJ added.

-ABC News' Laura Romero

Apr 13, 2025, 7:16 PM EDT

Trump admin continues to allege deported Maryland man is member of MS-13

President Donald Trump's administration has doubled down on its allegation that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 in the latest status update to the court.

Evan Katz, an official for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), acknowledged that while Abrego Garcia "should not have been" removed to El Salvador, Katz said that because of Abrego Garcia’s "membership in MS-13," he is not eligible for withholding of removal.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denied this allegation.

Abrego Garcia -- despite being issued a 2019 court order barring his deportation to El Salvador, where his attorneys say he escaped political violence in 2011 -- was sent to that country's notorious CECOT mega-prison in March following what the government said was an "administrative error."

-ABC News' Laura Romero

Apr 12, 2025, 5:12 PM EDT

Trump directs Cabinet to devise plan for military control of public land on southern border

President Donald Trump on Friday sent a presidential memorandum to Cabinet secretaries directing them to devise a plan to take jurisdiction over federal lands to combat illegal border crossings.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, rides a four-wheeler during a tour along the Nogales border wall at the Mariposa Port of Entry, Mar. 15, 2025, in Nogales, Ariz.
Alex Brandon/AP

There are already about 10,000 troops stationed along the border supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and this move could expand the role the troops play at the border.

The directive, sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, will be first implemented on a "limited sector" of federal lands along the border, to be determined by Hegseth over the next 45 days.

The portions of border land occupied by the military might then expand "at any time," the memorandum says.

Border crossings have already descended to low levels since Trump took office and defined ending illegal immigration as a top priority, but officials have told ABC News that efforts at the border will continue until there is "total operational control."

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

Apr 12, 2025, 12:58 PM EDT

'If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that': Trump

President Donald Trump weighed in Friday night into the legal battle over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The government faces a 5 p.m. deadline to provide the judge with more information about Garcia's whereabouts and efforts the United States is making to facilitate his return, following a Supreme Court order.

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One before departing from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on April 11, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Trump told reporters he wasn't well versed in the case. However, he reiterated his respect for the Supreme Court.

"If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court," he said.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders

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