Texas
Civil rights groups sue to stop state’s immigration law
A group of civil rights organizations on Monday filed a new lawsuit seeking to stop parts of the law that would let Texas police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The law can go into effect next week after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court ruling that had kept it paused for years.
Senate Bill 4, as the law is known, created a state-level crime for entering the country without authorization and created pathways for state authorities to remove such people from the country if convicted.
Courts have long held that immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government, but with the state law, Texas Republicans sought to challenge that precedent.
The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and ACLU argue in Monday’s lawsuit the law is unconstitutional because immigration law is exclusively the federal government’s domain and should preempt the state law.
They are trying to stop four provisions of SB 4: the creation of a crime for re-entering the country without authorization, even if a person has since obtained legal status; granting state magistrates authority to order a person’s deportation; the creation of a crime for failing to comply with a magistrate’s order; and requiring that magistrates continue a prosecution even if a person has a pending immigration case such as an asylum claim.
“Our fight against SB 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “SB 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest effort to stop the 2023 law, passed by the Legislature in response to record border crossings that GOP state leaders argued amounted to an invasion.
The Biden administration was among the plaintiffs to initially challenge the law in 2024, but the Trump administration last year terminated the Department of Justice’s participation in the lawsuit amid his immigration crackdown.
That lawsuit continued until two weeks ago, when a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had stopped the law when it ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
The law can go into effect May 15 unless it’s halted by another court.
Washington
Judge in dispute over Washington golf course tells Trump officials not to cut trees without notice
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge told the U.S. government Monday not to cut down more than 10 trees without first providing notice amid a legal dispute at a historic Washington golf course that President Donald Trump plans to renovate.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said during a remote hearing that she wasn’t going to issue a temporary restraining order just yet in the case brought by the DC Preservation League. She also told the National Park Service that it should first discuss any plans with government lawyers if it was going to cut down more than 10 trees.
Monday’s hearing came after the plaintiff’s emergency petition seeking to stop work at the course, citing news reports that major renovations were to begin Monday.
Kevin Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the Park Service, said during the hearing there was no plan to begin such work Monday but added that a safety assessment was underway.
Reyes told the parties she didn’t want to play the role of the “Parks and Rec” department, an allusion to the sitcom, but said she also didn’t want trees being bulldozed.
“I’m no Amy Poehler,” she said referring to the show’s star.
At one point during Monday’s hearing, the judge said she was made aware that closure signs had been put up at the site, which led to Griess asking someone to check. He later reported that there were no such signs. Reyes asked that if any such signs were found that the government’s attorney be told.
The complaint filed against the Department of the Interior argues that the Trump administration’s reconstruction of East Potomac Park, including the East Potomac Golf Course, would violate the congressional act that created the park in 1897. The roughly 130-year-old act established the park for the “recreation and the pleasure of the people.” The course itself opened in 1919.
Trump, an avid golfer, also plans on renovating a military golf course just outside of Washington that has been used by past presidents going back decades.
California
Man shot by ICE pleads not guilty to federal charges
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man who was shot multiple times during an arrest by immigration officers in central California pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges that he rammed his vehicle into two agents, prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who has dual citizenship in El Salvador and Mexico, on two counts of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of damaging government property.
Patrick Kolasinski, one of his lawyers, has said Mendoza panicked and tried to flee when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents blocked his car and that he did not intend to run over anyone. Kolasinski also disputed claims by officials that his client was a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in relation to a murder.
Salvadoran court documents show he was acquitted of murder in El Salvador and Mendoza has denied ever being in a gang, his lawyer has said. He came to the U.S. in 2019 and has no criminal record, Kolasinski has said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday that Mendoza has requested a jury trial. A status conference was set for July 27.
Mendoza is recovering after several surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the jaw, his attorney said.
The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE officers fired defensive shots at Mendoza after he tried to drive into them. DHS said the officers were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, on April 7 in Patterson, a city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
It was part of a series of shootings that have occurred during the Trump administration’s aggressive push to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally. It is also among those where questions have been raised to federal officials about the circumstances since in some shootings, video evidence contradicted immigration officials’ initial accounts.
Pennsylvania
State sues AI company, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as licensed doctors
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system’s users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, asks the statewide Commonwealth Court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character.AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.”
The lawsuit said an investigator from the state agency that licenses professionals created an account on Character.AI, searched on the word “psychiatry” and found a large number of characters, including one described as a “doctor of psychiatry.”
That character held itself out as able to assess the investigator “as a doctor” who is licensed in Pennsylvania, the lawsuit said.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to know who — or what — they are interacting with online, especially when it comes to their health,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement. “We will not allow companies to deploy AI tools that mislead people into believing they are receiving advice from a licensed medical professional.”
The company has faced several lawsuits over child safety. In January, Google and Character Technologies agreed to settle a lawsuit from a Florida mother who alleged a chatbot pushed her teenage son to kill himself. Last fall, Character.AI banned minors from using its chatbots amid growing concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence conversations on children.
New York
Ex-prison guard pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal beating
One of multiple corrections officers charged in connection with the fatal beating of an inmate at an upstate New York prison last year pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday and agreed to serve 11 years in prison.
Former guard Caleb Blair had initially faced the most serious charges filed against the officers, including second-degree murder, in the death of 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica on March 1, 2025. Nantwi died of massive head trauma and other injuries, and Blair was one of two guards who prosecutors said inflicted head wounds.
Prosecutors said Nantwi suffered 69 separate body blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons in a series of beatings. Nantwi, who was serving a five-year sentence for exchanging gunfire with police officers, had objected to being handcuffed by guards while resisting a prisoner headcount before the beatings, an indictment said.
Blair pleaded guilty in Oneida County Court in Utica just before jury selection was to begin Monday for a trial. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who prosecuted the case, said Nantwi’s family was OK with the plea deal.
“I’m satisfied that justice was done,” Fitzpatrick told The Associated Press in a phone interview after the hearing. “There has to be systemic changes in the facilities regarding relationships between (corrections officers) and incarcerated individuals, and I hope that people just don’t turn the page.”
Blair’s lawyer, William Sullivan, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions. He said Blair had been a model corrections officer with no history of being disciplined and had served overseas in the National Guard.
“It was a terrible combination of eight minutes, six minutes, in that cell that ruined an otherwise exemplary life,” Sullivan said. “If you had a daughter and Caleb Blair came home to ask for her hand, you’d be proud.”
Sentencing was set for June 17,
Lawyers for Nantwi’s family said his relatives primarily wanted accountability for his death.
“Most of the defendants here are going to jail. And hopefully the impact of that will resonate throughout the state prisons, which for far too long have tolerated and turned a blind eye to violence against inmates,” attorneys Earl Ward and Katie Rosenfeld said in a statement.
The other former officer who Fitzpatrick said inflicted head blows to Nantwi, Jonah Levi — who denied the allegation — was found guilty of manslaughter and other crimes by a jury last month and awaits sentencing.
A third former guard, Craig Klemick, pleaded guilty on Friday to offering a false instrument for filing, a crime commonly charged for lying in reports about an incident. Several other former guards have pleaded guilty, and only one case remains to be tried.
In an initial indictment of 10 corrections officers last year, six were accused of assaulting Nantwi, while the other four were accused of participating in a cover-up that included filing false reports, plotting to plant a makeshift knife and cleaning up blood in Nantwi’s room in an effort to destroy evidence.
The beating occurred during a wildcat strike by many officers that forced the governor to send in National Guard members to help keep order. Nantwi’s death also came several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at a separate prison just across the road from Mid-State.
Civil rights groups sue to stop state’s immigration law
A group of civil rights organizations on Monday filed a new lawsuit seeking to stop parts of the law that would let Texas police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The law can go into effect next week after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court ruling that had kept it paused for years.
Senate Bill 4, as the law is known, created a state-level crime for entering the country without authorization and created pathways for state authorities to remove such people from the country if convicted.
Courts have long held that immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government, but with the state law, Texas Republicans sought to challenge that precedent.
The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and ACLU argue in Monday’s lawsuit the law is unconstitutional because immigration law is exclusively the federal government’s domain and should preempt the state law.
They are trying to stop four provisions of SB 4: the creation of a crime for re-entering the country without authorization, even if a person has since obtained legal status; granting state magistrates authority to order a person’s deportation; the creation of a crime for failing to comply with a magistrate’s order; and requiring that magistrates continue a prosecution even if a person has a pending immigration case such as an asylum claim.
“Our fight against SB 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “SB 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest effort to stop the 2023 law, passed by the Legislature in response to record border crossings that GOP state leaders argued amounted to an invasion.
The Biden administration was among the plaintiffs to initially challenge the law in 2024, but the Trump administration last year terminated the Department of Justice’s participation in the lawsuit amid his immigration crackdown.
That lawsuit continued until two weeks ago, when a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had stopped the law when it ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
The law can go into effect May 15 unless it’s halted by another court.
Washington
Judge in dispute over Washington golf course tells Trump officials not to cut trees without notice
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge told the U.S. government Monday not to cut down more than 10 trees without first providing notice amid a legal dispute at a historic Washington golf course that President Donald Trump plans to renovate.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said during a remote hearing that she wasn’t going to issue a temporary restraining order just yet in the case brought by the DC Preservation League. She also told the National Park Service that it should first discuss any plans with government lawyers if it was going to cut down more than 10 trees.
Monday’s hearing came after the plaintiff’s emergency petition seeking to stop work at the course, citing news reports that major renovations were to begin Monday.
Kevin Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the Park Service, said during the hearing there was no plan to begin such work Monday but added that a safety assessment was underway.
Reyes told the parties she didn’t want to play the role of the “Parks and Rec” department, an allusion to the sitcom, but said she also didn’t want trees being bulldozed.
“I’m no Amy Poehler,” she said referring to the show’s star.
At one point during Monday’s hearing, the judge said she was made aware that closure signs had been put up at the site, which led to Griess asking someone to check. He later reported that there were no such signs. Reyes asked that if any such signs were found that the government’s attorney be told.
The complaint filed against the Department of the Interior argues that the Trump administration’s reconstruction of East Potomac Park, including the East Potomac Golf Course, would violate the congressional act that created the park in 1897. The roughly 130-year-old act established the park for the “recreation and the pleasure of the people.” The course itself opened in 1919.
Trump, an avid golfer, also plans on renovating a military golf course just outside of Washington that has been used by past presidents going back decades.
California
Man shot by ICE pleads not guilty to federal charges
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man who was shot multiple times during an arrest by immigration officers in central California pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges that he rammed his vehicle into two agents, prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who has dual citizenship in El Salvador and Mexico, on two counts of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of damaging government property.
Patrick Kolasinski, one of his lawyers, has said Mendoza panicked and tried to flee when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents blocked his car and that he did not intend to run over anyone. Kolasinski also disputed claims by officials that his client was a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in relation to a murder.
Salvadoran court documents show he was acquitted of murder in El Salvador and Mendoza has denied ever being in a gang, his lawyer has said. He came to the U.S. in 2019 and has no criminal record, Kolasinski has said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday that Mendoza has requested a jury trial. A status conference was set for July 27.
Mendoza is recovering after several surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the jaw, his attorney said.
The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE officers fired defensive shots at Mendoza after he tried to drive into them. DHS said the officers were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, on April 7 in Patterson, a city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
It was part of a series of shootings that have occurred during the Trump administration’s aggressive push to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally. It is also among those where questions have been raised to federal officials about the circumstances since in some shootings, video evidence contradicted immigration officials’ initial accounts.
Pennsylvania
State sues AI company, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as licensed doctors
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system’s users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, asks the statewide Commonwealth Court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character.AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.”
The lawsuit said an investigator from the state agency that licenses professionals created an account on Character.AI, searched on the word “psychiatry” and found a large number of characters, including one described as a “doctor of psychiatry.”
That character held itself out as able to assess the investigator “as a doctor” who is licensed in Pennsylvania, the lawsuit said.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to know who — or what — they are interacting with online, especially when it comes to their health,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement. “We will not allow companies to deploy AI tools that mislead people into believing they are receiving advice from a licensed medical professional.”
The company has faced several lawsuits over child safety. In January, Google and Character Technologies agreed to settle a lawsuit from a Florida mother who alleged a chatbot pushed her teenage son to kill himself. Last fall, Character.AI banned minors from using its chatbots amid growing concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence conversations on children.
New York
Ex-prison guard pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal beating
One of multiple corrections officers charged in connection with the fatal beating of an inmate at an upstate New York prison last year pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday and agreed to serve 11 years in prison.
Former guard Caleb Blair had initially faced the most serious charges filed against the officers, including second-degree murder, in the death of 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica on March 1, 2025. Nantwi died of massive head trauma and other injuries, and Blair was one of two guards who prosecutors said inflicted head wounds.
Prosecutors said Nantwi suffered 69 separate body blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons in a series of beatings. Nantwi, who was serving a five-year sentence for exchanging gunfire with police officers, had objected to being handcuffed by guards while resisting a prisoner headcount before the beatings, an indictment said.
Blair pleaded guilty in Oneida County Court in Utica just before jury selection was to begin Monday for a trial. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who prosecuted the case, said Nantwi’s family was OK with the plea deal.
“I’m satisfied that justice was done,” Fitzpatrick told The Associated Press in a phone interview after the hearing. “There has to be systemic changes in the facilities regarding relationships between (corrections officers) and incarcerated individuals, and I hope that people just don’t turn the page.”
Blair’s lawyer, William Sullivan, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions. He said Blair had been a model corrections officer with no history of being disciplined and had served overseas in the National Guard.
“It was a terrible combination of eight minutes, six minutes, in that cell that ruined an otherwise exemplary life,” Sullivan said. “If you had a daughter and Caleb Blair came home to ask for her hand, you’d be proud.”
Sentencing was set for June 17,
Lawyers for Nantwi’s family said his relatives primarily wanted accountability for his death.
“Most of the defendants here are going to jail. And hopefully the impact of that will resonate throughout the state prisons, which for far too long have tolerated and turned a blind eye to violence against inmates,” attorneys Earl Ward and Katie Rosenfeld said in a statement.
The other former officer who Fitzpatrick said inflicted head blows to Nantwi, Jonah Levi — who denied the allegation — was found guilty of manslaughter and other crimes by a jury last month and awaits sentencing.
A third former guard, Craig Klemick, pleaded guilty on Friday to offering a false instrument for filing, a crime commonly charged for lying in reports about an incident. Several other former guards have pleaded guilty, and only one case remains to be tried.
In an initial indictment of 10 corrections officers last year, six were accused of assaulting Nantwi, while the other four were accused of participating in a cover-up that included filing false reports, plotting to plant a makeshift knife and cleaning up blood in Nantwi’s room in an effort to destroy evidence.
The beating occurred during a wildcat strike by many officers that forced the governor to send in National Guard members to help keep order. Nantwi’s death also came several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at a separate prison just across the road from Mid-State.
