Donald Trump’s White House has described the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador as “heinous monsters” and terrorists who “rape, maim and murder for sport”.
But relatives of Francisco Javier García Casique, a 24-year-old from the city of Maracay, say he was a hairdresser, not a crook.
“He has never been in prison, he is innocent, and he has always supported us with his work as a barber,” his younger brother, Sebastián García Casique, said from their family home in Venezuela.
Here are the main stories from Wednesday:
Families of deported Venezuelans rebuke Trump claims
In recent days, a succession of Venezuelan families have gone public to demand the release of their loved ones: young working men whose main “crimes” appear to have been their nationality and having tattoos that US immigration authorities deemed a sign of affiliation to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Experts in South American organized crime reject the idea that tattoos are a meaningful indicator of gang membership in Venezuela.
Trump and Zelenskyy have ‘frank’ but ‘very good’ phone call
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good telephone call” on Wednesday, according to Trump, in the first conversation between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart since their disastrous showdown in the White House three weeks ago.
Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank”, and said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier. The White House said Trump had promised to help with a Ukrainian request to source more air defence batteries for Kyiv.
US economic growth forecast cut
Officials at the US Federal Reserve cut their US economic growth forecasts and raised their projections for price growth as they kept interest rates on hold amid sweeping tariffs. Central bank policymakers expect inflation to increase by an average rate of 2.7% this year and US gross domestic product (GDP) to rise by 1.7% this year, down from an estimate of 2.1%.
White House calls deportation judge a ‘Democrat activist’
The White House on Wednesday labeled the federal judge challenging the Trump administration on whether it defied his court order to halt flights deporting migrants “a Democrat activist”.
The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, singled out federal judge James Boasberg, over his handling of the case of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador.
Mahmoud Khalil case to move to New Jersey
A New York federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s bid to dismiss the legal challenge brought by Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia graduate and Palestinian activist who was detained by immigration enforcement agents earlier this month, and has ordered the case transferred to New Jersey.
French scientist denied US entry over Trump views
A French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, France’s research minister said.
Fired trade watchdog chief raises concern over Trump billionaire ties
A day after his abrupt firing by Donald Trump from the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya raised questions about the US president’s relations with some of the country’s richest men.
The ousted Democratic commissioner told a congressional hearing it was an “interesting coincidence” that his final public statement in the post had blasted Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder.
Musk echoes rightwing social security conspiracy theories
Elon Musk is claiming, without evidence, that Democrats have been using fraud in entitlements like social security and Medicare to attract immigrants and boost their voting ranks – language that also echoes racist rightwing conspiracy theories.
Judge orders two trans prisoners back to women’s facilities
A judge on Wednesday ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) to transfer two incarcerated transgender women back to federal women’s prisons after they had been sent to men’s facilities after Donald Trump’s executive order that truncated transgender protections.
Conservative ex-judge says Trump waging war on US rule of law
Donald Trump has “declared war on the rule of law in America” and is pitching the country into a constitutional crisis, a prominent former conservative federal judge J Michael Luttig has said.
What else happened today:
The University of California has imposed a hiring freeze in response to Trump cuts.
The Trump administration has paused $175m in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s college sports.
The justice department removed 11 guidelines for US businesses on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including some that deal with Covid-19 and masking and accessibility.
The US Institute of Peace has sued the Trump administration to block a Doge takeover.
A top teachers union has sued the US Department of Education after it stopped processing applications for affordable repayment plans on student loans.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents have detained an undocumented woman who is a prominent immigration advocate in Colorado. Jeanette Vizguerra, 53, was reportedly taken into custody by Ice on Monday outside a Target store in the Denver area where she worked, according to her legal representatives, friends and family members.
