Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Orders Halt on Deportations of Venezuelans Under Wartime Law

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Updated 

March 15, 2025, 10:29 p.m. ET36 minutes ago

President Trump has often referred to the arrivals of unauthorized immigrants as an “invasion.”Eric Lee/The New York Times

“Where Things Stand

• Alien Enemies Act: A federal judge on Saturday said the Trump administration must halt use of an obscure wartime law, called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to deport Venezuelans. The judge also ordered the return of any planes that had departed the United States with immigrants under the order. Read more ›

• Kennedy Center: President Trump is seeking changes that will allow him greater influence in the selection of Kennedy Center honorees, according to two people briefed on the matter who were granted anonymity to describe confidential discussions. Since 1978, the Kennedy Center has selected honorees to be recognized each year at a star-studded televised gala without interference from the White House. Read more ›

• F.B.I. reorganization: Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, is pushing ahead with a plan to decentralize the agency’s command structure and divide the bureau into three regions. Under the move, the top agents in 52 field offices around the country will no longer answer to the deputy director, a significant departure from the way the bureau has done business.”

‘Extermination Camp’ Found in Mexico, Group Searching for the Missing Says

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“Authorities in Mexico are investigating a disturbing discovery at an abandoned ranch outside Guadalajara, where volunteers found cremation ovens, human remains, and personal effects. The site, referred to as an “extermination camp,” suggests a mass grave and potential human trafficking activities linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The discovery has shocked the nation and prompted calls for action against the ongoing violence and disappearances plaguing Mexico.

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The authorities are investigating the discovery of cremation ovens, human remains, piles of shoes and other personal effects at an abandoned ranch outside Guadalajara.

Published March 14, 2025Updated March 15, 2025, 11:12 a.m. ET

An abandoned ranch outside of Guadalajara in western Mexico, where cremation ovens and human remains were found by a local volunteer group last week.Ulises Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A group of volunteers searching for their missing relatives first received a tip last week about a mass grave hidden in western Mexico.

When they arrived at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela, a small rural village outside Guadalajara in Jalisco state, they discovered three underground cremation ovens, burned human remains, hundreds of bone shards and discarded personal items, along with figurines of Santa Muerte — the Holy Death.

The Mexican authorities, who were notified of the grisly discovery, said in several statements that they later found 96 shell casings of various calibers and metal gripping rings at the ranch. By last Friday, the discovery was dominating local newspapers and TV reports, and the search group was referring to the site as an “extermination camp.”

It is unclear how many people died on the site, and none of the remains have been identified. The authorities have yet to say who operated the camp, what crimes were committed there and for how long. But this week, the State Attorney General’s Office took over the investigation at the request of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Photos taken by the authorities and by the volunteer group, Searching Warriors of Jalisco, at the abandoned ranch showed more than 200 shoes piled together and heaps of other personal items: a blue summer dress, a small pink backpack, notebooks, pieces of underwear. The more than 700 personal items were a chilling hint at the number of people who may have died there.

In a country seemingly inured to episodes of brutal violence from drug cartels, where clandestine graves emerge every month, the images shocked Mexicans and prompted outraged human rights groups to demand that the government put an end to the violence that has ravaged the nation for years.

Recording piles of clothing and shoes found at the ranch site.Ulises Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“The number of the victims that presumably could have been buried there is enormous,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst based in Mexico City. “And it resurfaced the nightmarish reminder that Mexico is plagued with mass graves.”

More than 120,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in Mexico since such record-keeping began in 1962, according to official data. Human rights groups and collectives of volunteers searching for their missing relatives have warned that the number could be higher.

The discovery at the ranch site comes at a time where Ms. Sheinbaum faces intense pressure from President Trump to crack down on organized crime in order to avoid tariffs on exports to the United States and even possible U.S. military intervention to hunt down cartel members.

Partly because of Mr. Trump’s threats, Ms. Sheinbaum has shifted security issues back to center stage on her agenda and has taken a more aggressive approach to fighting crime than her predecessor, experts and analysts say. But her government faces significant challenges as she tackles the powerful criminal groups that control large areas of the country.

One of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which emerged in the early 2010s, is now a major producer and trafficker of synthetic drugs, particularly fentanyl and methamphetamine. The group, which operates in the state of Jalisco and across the country, has diversified into other criminal activities like illegal logging, human trafficking and extortion.

Security forces standing guard outside the abandoned ranch on Thursday.Ulises Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The authorities have said that the ranch could have been operated by the Jalisco cartel. The group’s dominance and its rapid expansion in recent years have coincided with a growing number of homicides, forced disappearances and discoveries of mass graves in Jalisco state.

Indira Navarro, leader of Searching Warriors of Jalisco, which found the site, said in interviews with local news media this week that several people had contacted the group to say that they had been recruited and trained at the site in the use of weapons and torture techniques. But the ranch, they said, was also used as a killing site where criminals routinely disposed of their victims.

Ms. Navarro, who could not be reached for comment, told the news outlets that, according to the testimonies, young people from other states were recruited through false job offers posted on social media. Once they accepted the jobs, she said, they were summoned to a bus station in Guadalajara, the state capital, and from there taken to the ranch.

Ms. Navarro recounted how one young man had told her that the young recruits were at times forced to burn their victims as part of their training. If they objected to the orders of their trainers, the recruits were sometimes fed to wild animals, like lions, she said.

“This is not a horror film; this is our reality, and people should know about it,” Ms. Navarro, whose brother went missing nine years ago, said in an interview with a national radio show.

Volunteers digging at the site of a human crematory.Ulises Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The New York Times could not independently verify the accounts.

The local authorities were familiar with the ranch, first locating it last September and finding weapons, shell casings and bone fragments there, according to official reports, but further investigations were stopped for reasons that are unclear. During the same inspection, officials found and rescued two people who had been kidnapped and held at the ranch, and also discovered a body wrapped in plastic.

Why the authorities did not discover the pile of shoes, clothes and burned remains then is unclear.

The state attorney general, Salvador González, has since told local news media that it had not been possible to search the entire ranch back in September “because there are a lot of hectares in the area.”

Ms. Sheinbaum suggested during a news conference this week that the local authorities might have been omissive in their initial investigation.

The attorney general “is correct in stating it is not credible that a situation of this nature would not have been known to the authorities of that municipality and the state,” she said. “But the first thing we have to do is investigate.”

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Draft List for New Travel Ban Proposes Trump Target 43 Countries

“A draft circulating inside the administration lists three tiers of countries whose citizens may face restrictions on entering the United States.

The most stringent restriction level would flatly bar citizens from 11 countries from entering the United States.Credit...Ian Willms for The New York Times

By Charlie Savage and Ken Bensinger

Graphic by Allison McCann

Charlie Savage reported from Washington and Ken Bensinger from Los Angeles.

• March 14, 2025

The Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, according to officials familiar with the matter.

A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries whose citizens would be flatly barred from entering the United States. They are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, the officials said.

Draft List of Proposed Travel Ban Countries

An internal Trump administration proposal lists the following countries whose citizens could face restrictions on entering the U.S. Some countries may change in any final order.

Red

All travel banned

Orange

Visas sharply restricted

Yellow

60 days to address concerns

Afghanistan 

Bhutan 

Cuba 

Iran

Libya

North Korea

Somalia

Sudan

Syria

Venezuela

Yemen

Belarus

Eritrea

Haiti

Laos

Myanmar

Pakistan

Russia

Sierra Leone

South Sudan

Turkmenistan

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda

Benin

Burkina Faso

Cambodia

Cameroon

Cape Verde

Chad

Republic of Congo

Democratic Republic of Congo

Dominica

Equatorial Guinea

Gambia

Liberia

Malawi

Mali

Mauritania

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

São Tomé and Príncipe

Vanuatu

Zimbabwe

Credit: The New York Times

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations, cautioned that the list had been developed by the State Department several weeks ago, and that changes were likely by the time it reached the White House.…”