By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and REGINA GARCIA CANO

An extraordinary legal showdown took place last weekend over President Donald Trump’s invocation of an 18th century wartime act to deport hundreds of immigrants, most of them Venezuelans, to a prison in El Salvador.

It involved a series of legal filings, White House announcements, court hearings, deportation flights and a mocking social media post from a Central American leader who proudly calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”

Here is a timeline of events surrounding the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. All times are eastern.

Saturday, March 15

2:16 a.m.: Two legal advocacy groups — the ACLU and Democracy Forward — file suit on behalf of five Venezuelans held in immigration detention who fear they’ll be falsely labeled members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and deported under the Alien Enemies Act, which lawyers expect to be invoked soon.

9:40 a.m.: Judge James E. Boasberg issues a temporary restraining order preventing the government from deporting the five plaintiffs. He schedules a 5 p.m. hearing on whether to expand it. The Trump administration swiftly appeals the order.

Roughly 4 p.m.: The White House posts the order invoking the Alien Enemies Act.

5 p.m.: Boasberg convenes a hearing and asks the government attorney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, if the government plans to deport anyone under Trump’s new proclamation “in the next 24 or 48 hours.” Ensign says he doesn’t know and asks for time to find out, as the ACLU warns planes are apparently about to depart. Boasberg gives Ensign about 40 minutes to find out and recesses the hearing at 5:22 pm.

5:26 p.m.: An airplane with the tail number N278GX, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, leaves Harlingen, Texas, near the border with Mexico, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

5:45 p.m.: Another airplane with the tail number N837VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.

About 5:55 p.m.: Boasberg reconvenes the hearing. Ensign says he still has no specifics. The ACLU again warns that planes are leaving. Boasberg says he has to issue a new order to avoid anyone being immediately deported.

Around 6:45 p.m.: Boasberg tells Ensign: “Inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” He verbally issues his order, which stands for 14 days, and notes that immigrants protected by it will remain in U.S. custody.

7:26 p.m.: Boasberg’s written order is released.

7:36 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX lands in Honduras.

7:37 p.m.: An airplane with the tail number N630VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.

8:02 p.m. The plane with the tail number N837VA lands in El Salvador.

9:46 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in Honduras.

10:41 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX departs Honduras.

Sunday, March 16:

12:05 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX arrives in El Salvador.

12:41 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA leaves Honduras.

1:03 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in El Salvador.

7:46 a.m.: El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweets a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered planes turned around and adds “Oopsie … Too late” and a laughing/crying emoji.

8:13 a.m.: Bukele tweets footage of the deportees arriving and being processed into his country’s showcase prison.

8:39 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posts Bukele’s tweet.

9:29 a.m.: White House Communications director recirculates Bukele’s laughing post

Monday, March 17

5 p.m.: A hearing begins over what Boasberg has called the “possible defiance” of his court order. Trump administration lawyers tell Boasberg that his verbal directions did not count, only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn’t apply to flights outside the U.S. and that they could not answer his questions about the trips due to national security issues. Boasberg calls the arguments “one heck of a stretch.” Government lawyers say the third plane that departed Texas on Saturday held no one deported under the Alien Enemies Act. ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, warns that “I think we’re getting very close” to a constitutional crisis.

Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan contributed.

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The parents of a U.S. college student who vanished almost two weeks ago in the resort town of Punta Cana have asked authorities to declare her legally dead.

In a letter to Dominican police dated Monday, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi Konanki state that after an extensive search, local authorities believe that Sudiksha, a 20-year-old student at the University of Pittsburgh, drowned.

“Initiating this process will allow our family to begin the grieving process and address matters related to her absence,” they wrote. “While no declaration can truly ease our grief, we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”

A police official not authorized to speak about the case confirmed Tuesday that authorities received the letter.

Sudiksha Konanki and five female friends had traveled to the Caribbean nation on March 3 for spring break. Police said she disappeared at a beach by her hotel before dawn on March 6.

Authorities have interviewed people who were with Konanki before she vanished, including Joshua Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota.

Riibe has been detained by Dominican police and is believed to be the last person to see Konanki. He has not been named as a suspect.

He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon following a request from his attorney that he be released.

According to the transcript of an interview with prosecutors, reported by Dominican media as well as NBC and Telemundo, Riibe told police he was drinking with Konanki on the beach and they were kissing in the ocean when they got caught in a current. Riibe said he was a former lifeguard and helped bring her ashore.

He told investigators he vomited upon reaching the beach and that Konanki said she was going to fetch her things. When he looked up, she was gone. He said he was later surprised to hear of her disappearance.

In their letter, the Konankis wrote that “the individual” last seen with their daughter is cooperating and that no evidence of foul play has been found.

Sudiksha Konanki was born in India and later became a U.S. permanent resident.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is continuing a controversial national town hall tour that he kicked off last week amid reports that Republican lawmakers were nixing in-person town hall meetings.

Walz made his first stops this weekend — in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, March 14, and in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday. Walz’s team told Forum News Service that he plans to stop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday and that stops in Ohio and Minnesota are in the works.

“People want to make their voices heard, but their congressmen are hiding in Washington and refusing to do town halls,” Walz wrote on X on March 13 when he launched his town hall tour. “I’m going to join Democrats across the country to show up where Republicans aren’t.”

Politico reported on March 4 that Congressman Richard Hudson, R-North Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Republican lawmakers behind closed doors to stop conducting in-person town hall meetings with constituents. Politico cited three anonymous sources in its article.

The tour from Walz has been met with frustration from Minnesota Republicans. At an unrelated press conference Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson referred to Walz’s tour as “campaigning.”

“We have problems here in the state, and for him to be running away from those problems is really discouraging,” Johnson said. “There’s plenty of time this summer to go do that, but right now, we need everybody here, all hands on deck.”

Johnson’s concerns were echoed by House Republicans last week following the announcement of the tour. Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, joked that he’s “a little worried we might have to go to Iowa and Nebraska” to work with Walz.

Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said on Monday that Walz is doing “important work” on the tour, specifically in regard to proposed Medicaid cuts from the U.S. House’s budget proposals.

“The work that Governor Walz is doing could directly benefit Minnesota by trying to put pressure on Republicans across the country to not move forward with these really damaging cuts,” Long said. “There’s plenty of time for us to do the work of the people back here with budget negotiations. The governor has had his budget out for several weeks and I think it’s the House GOP’s turn to put their proposal out.”

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Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Google will buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion to boost the tech giant’s in-house cloud computing amid burgeoning artificial intelligence growth.

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The all-cash acquisition announced Tuesday would be Google’s biggest in its 26-year history, and it is the biggest deal of 2025.

Wiz will join Google Cloud, boosting Google’s in-house cloud security in the era of AI, the companies said.

“Wiz and Google Cloud are both fueled by the belief that cloud security needs to be easier, more accessible, more intelligent, and democratized, so more organizations can adopt and use cloud and AI securely,” Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said in a blog post.

Together, Google CEO Sundar Pichai added in a statement, Google Cloud and Wiz “will turbocharge improved cloud security and the ability to use multiple clouds.”

Wiz, based in New York, was founded in 2020 and makes security tools designed to protect information stored in remote data centers.

Google has had its eyes on Wiz for some time. The sale price announced this week is much more rich than the reported $23 billion buyout that Wiz rejected last July — opting to instead pivot back to a previously-planned initial public offering. But on Tuesday, Rappaport said that the company expects to “innovate even faster” by becoming a part of Google.

Wedbush analysts called Google’s move to buy Wiz “a shot across the bow” at other tech giants, particularly Microsoft and Amazon, who have bet big on cyber security. Google appeared to fall behind in the cloud arms race, the analysts wrote Tuesday, but the Wiz deal would “clearly bolster” its offerings.

The proposed buyout will get a close look from antitrust regulators. While many expect the Trump administration to be more friendly to business deals, it has also shown itself to be leery of big tech.

The new Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has vowed to maintain a tough review process for mergers and acquisitions.

The $32 billion acquisition announced Tuesday raises antitrust concerns due to the potential impact on standalone cyber security vendors, as well as potential disruption for bigger rivals. Still, Wedbush’s analysts note the industry is “ripe for consolidation” — which could pose “massive growth opportunities on the horizon heading into this AI Revolution.”

Wiz and Google say that Wiz’s products will continue to work across all major clouds — including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud, as well as through other security partners.

Subject to the regulatory greenlight and other closing conditions, Google and Wiz expect the deal to close in 2026.

Shares for Google owner Alphabet fell nearly 5% Tuesday morning.