By BEN FINLEY

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, has been back in the United States for more than two weeks after being charged with human smuggling in Tennessee.

But the 29-year-old Maryland construction worker’s future is far from certain.

A federal judge has raised questions about the strength of the government’s smuggling allegations, including its claim Abrego Garcia is in the violent MS-13 street gang. The judge on Sunday denied federal prosecutors’ request to keep Abrego Garcia in jail while he awaits trial. The conditions of his release will be discussed at a court hearing on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors have said they will appeal the judge’s decision. Even if Abrego Garcia is released, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to detain him and try to deport him.

Here’s what to know about Abrego Garcia’s case:

The smuggling charges

Abrego Garcia is charged with smuggling throughout the U.S. hundreds of people living in the country illegally, including children and members of MS-13, from 2016 to 2025.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee during which he was driving a vehicle with nine passengers who didn’t have any luggage.

Body camera footage shows a calm exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia. The officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. One of the officers says, “He’s hauling these people for money.” Another says Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope.

Abrego Garcia was allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

A Department of Homeland Security special agent, Peter Joseph, testified at a June 13 court hearing in Nashville that witnesses testified to a grand jury that they saw Abrego Garcia smuggling people, guns or drugs and that he earned upward of $100,000 a year.

A not guilty plea

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty at the June 13 hearing. His attorneys have characterized the case as an attempt by Trump’s Republican administration to justify his mistaken deportation in March.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers told the judge that some government witnesses cooperated to get favors regarding their immigration status or criminal charges they were facing. Joseph, the special agent, acknowledged in testimony that one witness was living in the U.S. illegally with a criminal record and is now getting preferred status.

Casting doubt, an assistant federal public defender, Richard Tennent, noted that a witness claimed that Abrego Garcia would drive from Maryland to Houston — a 1,400-mile (2,250-kilometer) trip taking about 24 hours — two or three times per week.

Judge raises questions

In her ruling Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes rejected the government’s request to keep Abrego Garcia in jail.

The judge echoed defense attorneys’ doubts that Abrego Garcia could make multiple roundtrips per week from Maryland to Houston, which she wrote would “approach physical impossibility.”

The judge also noted inconsistencies about Abrego Garcia’s alleged ties to MS-13, writing that two witnesses offered “general statements” and “hearsay.”

Meanwhile, a third witness who’d known Abrego Garcia for 10 years said “there were no signs or markings, including tattoos, indicating that Abrego is an MS-13 member,” the judge wrote.

Holmes also noted the contrast between the government’s allegations and the fact that Abrego Garcia “has no reported criminal history of any kind.”

Original MS-13 allegation

Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, and helped his family run a business selling pupusas, tortilla pouches filled with cheese, beans or pork.

In 2011, the year he turned 16, he fled a local gang that extorted and terrorized his family, court records state. He traveled illegally to Maryland, where his brother already lived as a U.S. citizen.

Abrego Garcia found work in construction and began a relationship with an American woman, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. In 2018, he moved in with her and her two children after she became pregnant with his child. They lived in Prince George’s County, just outside Washington.

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In March 2019, Abrego Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing.

A criminal informant told police that Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, court records state, but police did not charge him and turned him over to ICE.

Abrego Garcia then went before a U.S. immigration judge and sought asylum, which was denied. The judge, however, granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador.

The judge said Abrego Garcia had demonstrated a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution there, court records state. He was released.

Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly while Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his attorneys said. He joined a union and was employed full-time as a sheet metal apprentice.

In February, the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization, and in March it deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The administration described its violation of the immigration judge’s 2019 order as an administrative error. Trump and other officials doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in MS-13.

US could try to deport him again

Holmes acknowledged in Sunday’s ruling that considering release was “little more than an academic exercise.” Prosecutors had told Holmes that ICE would take Abrego Garcia into custody if he were released.

Another public defender, Will Allensworth, told the judge he expects a full hearing before an immigration judge, who would have to consider Abrego Garcia’s 2019 protection order from deportation to El Salvador.

If the U.S. wanted to try to deport Abrego Garcia somewhere else, the government would have to prove the other country wouldn’t just send him to El Salvador, Allensworth said.

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an Ohio State University law professor, said the Trump administration would be “fully within its legal power to attempt to remove him to some other country.”

“The Trump administration would have to pull its diplomatic levers,” the professor added. “It’s unusual. But it’s not unheard of.”

Abrego Garcia could contest the criminal allegations in immigration court while demonstrating his ties to the U.S., García Hernández said.

“The fact that he has become the poster boy for the Trump administration’s hard-line approach to immigration bolsters his persecution claim,” the professor said. “Because he’s a known quantity at this point, and not just in El Salvador or Central America, but really across much of the world.”

Associated Press reporter Travis Loller in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

By MOLLY QUELL, LORNE COOK and MIKE CORDER

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — NATO leaders gathered in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a historic two-day summit that could unite the world’s biggest security organization around a new defense spending pledge or widen divisions among the 32 allies.

The allies are likely to endorse a goal of spending 5% of their gross domestic product on their security, to be able to fulfil the alliance’s plans for defending against outside attack. Still, Spain has said it cannot, and that the target is “unreasonable.” President Donald Trump has said the U.S. should not have to.

Slovakia said that it reserves the right to decide how to reach the target by NATO’s new 2035 deadline.

“There’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way to the summit.

NATO’s first summit with Trump, in 2018, unraveled due to a dispute over defense spending.

Ahead of the meeting, Britain, France and Germany committed to the 5% goal. Host country the Netherlands is also onboard. Nations closer to the borders of Ukraine, Russia and its ally Belarus had previously pledged to do so.

“We are not living in happy land after the Berlin Wall came down. We are living in much more dangerous times and there are enemies, adversaries who might want to attack us,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said ahead of the summit in The Hague.

“We have to make sure that we defend our beautiful way of life and systems and our values,” he said.

Trump’s first appearance at NATO since returning to the White House was supposed to center on how the U.S. secured the historic military spending pledge from others in the security alliance — effectively bending it to its will.

But the spotlight has shifted to Trump’s decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran that the administration says eroded Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as the president’s sudden announcement that Israel and Iran had reached a “complete and total ceasefire.”

Ukraine has also suffered as a result of that conflict. It has created a need for weapons and ammunition that Kyiv desperately wants, and shifted the world’s attention away. Past NATO summits have focused almost entirely on the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

Still, Rutte insisted NATO could manage more than one conflict at a time.

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“If we would not be able to deal with … the Middle East, which is very big and commanding all the headlines, and Ukraine at the same time, we should not be in the business of politics and military at all,” he said. “If you can only deal with one issue at a time, that will be that. Then let other people take over.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in The Hague for a series of meetings, despite his absence from a leaders’ meeting aiming to seal the agreement to boost military spending.

It’s a big change since the summit in Washington last year, when the military alliance’s weighty communique included a vow to supply long-term security assistance to Ukraine, and a commitment to back the country “on its irreversible path” to NATO membership.

Zelenskyy’s first official engagement was with Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof at his official residence just across the road from the summit venue.

But in a telling sign of Ukraine’s status at the summit, neither leader mentioned NATO. Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance has been put in deep freeze by Trump.

“Let me be very clear, Ukraine is part of the family that we call the Euro-Atlantic family,” Schoof told Zelenskyy, who in turn said he sees his country’s future in peace “and of course, a part of a big family of EU family.”

Schoof used the meeting to announce a new package of Dutch support to Kyiv including 100 radar systems to detect drones and a move to produce drones for Ukraine in the Netherlands, using Kyiv’s specifications.

The U.S. has made no new public pledges of support to Ukraine since Trump took office six months ago.

Meeting later with Rutte and top EU officials, Zelenskyy appealed for European investment in Ukraine’s defense industry, which can produce weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than elsewhere in Europe.

“No doubt, we must stop (Russian President Vladimir) Putin now and in Ukraine. But we have to understand that his objectives reach beyond Ukraine. European countries need to increase defense spending,” he said. He said that NATO’s new target of 5% of GDP “is the right level.”

He thanked them for their unity in supporting Ukraine, saying: “I think this is the most important thing.”

Minnesota United vs. Houston Dynamo

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Allianz Field
Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Weather: 66 degrees, rain, 10 mph east wind
Betting line: MNUFC minus-115; draw plus-270; Houston plus-290

Form: The Loons (8-4-6, 30 points) had its four-match unbeaten streak snapped in a 4-2 loss to San Diego FC on June 14. Houston (5-8-5, 20 points) has dropped two straight to two of the worst teams in MLS — Montreal and Kansas City. Both were 3-1 defeats.

Recent matchup: MNUFC overhauled its starting XI and those eight changes — including five making their first starts of 2025 — resulted in a 2-0 loss to Houston on May 15. The Loons won’t be full strength Wednesday but aren’t expected to tie one hand behind its back in St. Paul.

Update: Four key MNUFC players — Dayne St. Clair and Tani Oluwaseyi (Canada), Carlos Harvey (Panama) and Joseph Rosales (Honduras) — remain away for the Concacaf Gold Cup and will miss Wednesday’s match.

Stats: The defeat to high-flying expansion side San Diego was the first time Minnesota had lost a match when scoring the first goal this season. They are now 8-1-3 in those games, 0-3-0 when allowing the first goal, along with three scoreless draws.

Check-in: Swedish club Malmo FF will no longer proceed in trying to acquire Loons winger Sang Bin Jeong, according to SportBladet. The outlet said MNUFC’s transfer fee of approximately $2 million has been deemed too high by Malmo. Jeong, who just received his U.S. Green Card, might more likely be headed to another MLS club this summer. The South Korean has yet to score in 286 MLS minutes this year.

View: Rookie goalkeeper Wessel Speel struggled in his MLS debut against San Diego, but head coach Eric Ramsay continued to speak highly of the 23-year-old Dutchman after the match. Actions will speak louder if he sticks with Speel over fellow back-up Alec Smir against Houston.

Projected starting XI: In a 5-4-1 formation, FW Kelvin Yeboah; MF Joaquin Pereyra, MF Robin Lod, MF Wil Trapp, MF Owen Gene; LWB Anthony Markanich, CB Nico Romero, CB Michael Boxall, CB Jefferson Diaz, RWB Julian Gressel; GK Wessel Speel.

Scouting report: Jack McGlynn, arguably Houston’s best player, is away with the U.S. men’s national team in the Concacaf Gold Cup. The 21-year-old was cutting open the Loons last month with a game-high 10 shot-creating actions, per FBref.com. United won’t miss him this month.

Prediction: Ramsay has talked regularly about the Loons contending with the top of the Western Conference. They smacked into the ceiling again versus San Diego. This match is about creating distance from their floor. Loons come out victorious, 2-1.

By CALEIGH WELLS

TWINSBURG, Ohio (AP) — When Judy Sautner recently walked into Power Appliance, a store in a southeastern suburb of Cleveland, she had one goal in mind: replace her daughter’s broken dryer with something that worked and didn’t break the bank.

“I wasn’t really worried about all the bells and whistles,” said Sautner.

Jay Buchanan, the store’s owner, said many customers are like Sautner, and what they are looking for frequently ends up being an appliance with the Energy Star symbol.

The U.S.-based program claims that its blue seal of approval on efficient appliances saves households an average of $450 on their bills per year. Since its launch in 1992, Energy Star appliances have also prevented 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the main cause of climate change.

But the program’s future is unclear. The Environmental Protection Agency has announced an agency reorganization plan that would eliminate its Energy Star offices. That would make it more difficult for customers to find energy efficient appliances. Here is a look at Energy Star along with tips to find energy efficient appliances if the program goes away:

How Energy Star works

Energy Star is a voluntary labeling program. The EPA sets energy efficiency standards for various machines, and then companies that produce them can try to hit or exceed those standards. If they do, they get the Energy Star sticker certifying it works as well as a standard product and uses less energy.

Companies are incentivized to make products that earn that sticker because state and local utility rebate programs, along with federal tax incentives, base qualifying appliances on the program. Consumers who want to save money through incentives and lower gas and electric bills know to look for it. And according to the program’s website, roughly 90% of households recognize the symbol.

Qualifying specifications vary depending on the appliance, but requirements include the amount of energy consumed when a machine is turned off, the inclusion of a low-power or “sleep” mode and a minimum efficiency rating when it’s operating.

If Energy Star goes away

Finding and buying energy-efficient products without that certification wouldn’t be impossible, just difficult, said Elizabeth Hewitt, associate professor of technology and society at Stony Brook University.

“You have to become a really savvy shopper,” she said.

It would mean consumers searching for, say, a dishwasher, would have to put together a list of options, gather specifications that come with each product, compare them, and recognize which numbers indicate that the dishwasher is energy efficient.

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Specifications for a washing machine, for example, might include how many clothes can fit in a load, the gallons of water per load and the electricity required to run a cycle, while a furnace’s specs focus on how good it is at converting energy into heat, how much of that heat leaks and how well its fan does at blowing hot air into the house.

Converting all those numbers into a single seal of approval would be complicated.

“Unless they’re deep into analytics, they’re not gonna freakin’ know,” said Buchanan.

Buchanan said his customers usually ask for help finding energy efficient appliances. So if that seal of approval disappears, it’ll change his life more than the lives of his customers. He said he’ll have to do the work to figure out which appliances will save on energy bills.

The concern, said Executive Director Ben Stapleton with U.S. Green Building Council California, a nonprofit focused on sustainable building, is that extra set of steps will deter people from prioritizing energy efficiency.

“If we’re just relying on the manufacturer and relying on people to go through the manual to see what the power draw is, it’s hard to imagine that being effective,” he said.

Tips for picking appliances

Many utilities are incentivized to help households and businesses buy efficient appliances.

If Energy Star were to go away, utilities would need to figure out a new way of determining which appliances qualify for their incentive programs, said Mark Kresowik, senior policy director with the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Calling and asking them about qualifying appliances would be a good place to start, he said.

Consumer Reports, an organization that does independent product reviews, can provide information about appliances and their performance, although it requires a subscription to access some of its more detailed information.

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency, a collaboration with primarily utilities, has its own energy efficiency standards. Right now those standards are designed with Energy Star in mind, but Kresowik said incentive programs could shift to using product specifications.

The fate of Energy Star is still uncertain. The broad reorganization at the EPA reported last month would eliminate or reorganize large parts of the offices that keep the program running, but the EPA has not directly confirmed a plan to shut it down or provided a timeline.

Regardless of what happens to Energy Star or what appliances are bought, Stapleton said consumers always have agency to use products in an energy-efficient way, such as washing clothes in cold water or avoiding the water-heavy dishwasher settings. It always helps to choose the right sized products.

“Maybe I don’t need the largest microwave that’s on the market,” he said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.