Heather Colley and her two children moved four times over five years as they fled high rents in eastern Tennessee, which, like much of rural America, hasn’t been spared from soaring housing costs.

A family gift in 2021 of a small plot of land offered a shot at homeownership, but building a house was beyond reach for the 45-year-old single mother and manicurist making $18.50 an hour.

That changed when she qualified for $272,000 from a nonprofit to build a three-bedroom home because of a grant program that has helped make affordable housing possible in rural areas for decades. She moved in last June.

“Every time I pull into my garage, I pinch myself,” Colley said.

Now, President Donald Trump wants to eliminate that grant, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and House Republicans overseeing federal budget negotiations did not include funding for it in their budget proposal. Experts and state housing agencies say that would set back tens of thousands of future affordable housing developments nationwide, particularly hurting Appalachian towns and rural counties where government aid is sparse and investors are few.

The program has helped build or repair more than 1.3 million affordable homes in the last three decades, of which at least 540,000 were in congressional districts that are rural or significantly rural, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.

“Maybe they don’t realize how far-reaching these programs are,” said Colley, who voted for Trump in 2024. Among those half a million homes that HOME helped build, 84% were in districts that voted for him last year, the AP analysis found.

“I understand we don’t want excessive spending and wasting taxpayer dollars,” Colley said, “but these proposed budget cuts across the board make me rethink the next time I go to the polls.”

The HOME program, started under President George H. W. Bush in the 1990s, survived years of budget battles but has been stretched thin by years of rising construction costs and stagnant funding. That’s meant fewer units, including in some rural areas where home prices have grown faster than in cities.

The program has spent more than $38 billion nationwide since it began filling in funding gaps and attracting more investment to acquire, build and repair affordable homes, HUD data shows. Additional funding has gone toward projects that have yet to be finished and rental assistance.

HOME’s future is in political limbo

To account for the gap left by the proposed cuts, House Republicans want to draw on nearly $5 billion from a related pandemic-era fund that gave states until 2030 to spend on projects supporting people who are unhoused or facing homelessness.

That $5 billion, however, may be far less, since many projects haven’t yet been logged into the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s tracking system, according to state housing agencies and associations representing them.

A spokesperson for HUD, which administers the program, said HOME isn’t as effective as other programs where the money would be better spent.

In opposition to Trump, Senate Republicans have still included funding for HOME in their draft budget. In the coming negotiations, both chambers may compromise and reduce but not terminate HOME’s funding, or extend last years’ overall budget.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle didn’t respond to specific questions from the AP. Instead, Ingle said that Trump’s commitment to cutting red tape is making housing more affordable.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is working to reduce HOME’s notorious red tape that even proponents say slows construction.

Some rural areas are more dependent on HOME

In Owsley County — one of the nation’s poorest, located in the rural Kentucky hills — residents struggle in an economy blighted by coal mine closures and declining tobacco crop revenues.

Affordable homes are needed there, but tough to build in a region that doesn’t attract larger-scale rental developments that federal dollars typically go toward.

That’s where HOME comes in, said Cassie Hudson, who runs Partnership Housing in Owsley, which has relied on the program to build the majority of its affordable homes for at least a dozen years.

A lack of additional funding for HOME has already made it hard to keep up with construction costs, Hudson said, and the organization builds a quarter of the single-family homes it used to.

“Particularly for deeply rural places and persistent poverty counties, local housing developers are the only way homes and new rental housing gets built,” said Joshua Stewart of Fahe, a coalition of Appalachian nonprofits.

That’s in part because investment is scant and HOME steps in when construction costs exceed what a home can be sold for — a common barrier in poor areas of Appalachia. Some developers use the profits to build more affordable units. Its loss would erode those nonprofits’ ability to build affordable homes in years to come, Stewart said.

One of those nonprofits, Housing Development Alliance, helped Tiffany Mullins in Hazard, Kentucky, which was ravaged by floods. Mullins, a single mother of four who makes $14.30 an hour at Walmart, bought a house there thanks to HOME funding and moved in August.

Mullins sees the program as preserving a rural way of life, recalling when folks owned homes and land “with gardens, we had chickens, cows. Now you don’t see much of that.”

It’s a long-term impact

In congressional budget negotiations, HOME is an easier target than programs such as vouchers because most people would not immediately lose their housing, said Tess Hembree, executive director of the Council of State Community Development Agencies.

The effect of any reduction would instead be felt in a fizzling of new affordable housing supply. When HOME funding was temporarily reduced to $900 million in 2015, “10 to 15 years later, we’re seeing the ramifications,” Hembree said.

That includes affordable units built in cities. The biggest program that funds affordable rental housing nationwide, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, uses HOME grants for 12% of units, totaling 324,000 current individual units, according to soon-to-be-published Urban Institute research.

Trump’s spending bill that Republicans passed this summer increased LITHC, but experts say further reducing or cutting HOME would make those credits less usable.

“It’s LITHC plus HOME, usually,” said Tim Thrasher, CEO of Community Action Partnership of North Alabama, which builds affordable apartments for some of the nation’s poorest.

In the lush mountains of eastern West Virginia, Woodlands Development Group relies on HOME for its smaller rural projects. Because it helps people with a wider range of incomes, HOME is “one of the only programs available to us that allows us to develop true workforce housing,” said executive director Dave Clark.

It’s those workers — nurses, first responders, teachers — that nonprofits like east Tennessee’s Creative Compassion use HOME to build for. With the program in jeopardy, grant administrator Sarah Halcott said she fears for her clients battling rising housing costs.

“This is just another nail in the coffin for rural areas,” Halcott said.

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Kramon reported from Atlanta. Bedayn reported from Denver. Herbst contributed from New York City, and Kessler reported from Washington, D.C.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Charlotte Kramon, Jesse Bedayn, Michaela Herbst And Aaron Kessler, The Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday endorsed Republican Derek Dooley in Georgia’s 2026 U.S. Senate race, arguing an outsider without congressional experience can best critique Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s record.

“I’m a firm believer that we need a political outsider to do that, someone that can stay focused on his record, but also someone who has a vision for our state in the future,” Kemp said. “That is not a politician.”

Kemp’s choice of Dooley is hardly a surprise — he told other Republican candidates that he would back Dooley before the former University of Tennessee football coach even entered the race. But Kemp’s appearance with Dooley on Saturday before a University of Georgia football game in Athens — along with Kemp spending on Dooley’s behalf and detailing his closest political aides to run Dooley’s campaign — underline the investment of Georgia’s second-term governor in a political novice.

Kemp agreed to back the 57-year-old Dooley after deciding not to run for the seat himself. Georgia Republicans are looking to topple Ossoff, considered the Senate’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbent seeking reelection next year. The GOP field also includes U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, as well as activist Reagan Box.

Dooley has focused on attacking Ossoff and backing President Donald Trump, tactics that unify Republicans. He argued Saturday that Ossoff’s history of support for former President Joe Biden and his opposition to Trump disqualify him from another term.

“What’s amazing is he wants to be our quarterback for the next six years,” Dooley said. “And where I come from, when you deliver results like that, your ass goes on the bench. So I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves. I’m going to earn the support every day from the people and Georgia and give this Senate seat back to them.”

But Dooley has a scant history in politics — he didn’t vote in the 2016 and 2020 elections when Trump was a candidate. Still coaching at the time, Dooley has said he was too busy and distracted to vote. But Collins says that will repel Republicans whose votes are needed.

“If we nominate someone who didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020, never registered as a Republican, and hasn’t lived in Georgia for 25 years, the base will not show up, the low-propensity Trump voters will stay home, and Jon Ossoff will win again — period,” Collins said in a statement posted online Friday pushing back against Kemp’s reasoning.

Collins said that backing Trump’s agenda in Congress won’t be a “liability” in a general election and argued his record shows he gets things done.

Kemp and Trump met and said they would try to agree on a preferred candidate.

Kemp said Saturday that he has talked to Trump about backing Dooley and that Trump “respects my decision.” But Trump isn’t yet ready to endorse, and all the candidates are vying for Trump’s nod.

“There’s only one endorsement that matters in Georgia — and will all due respect, it ain’t this one,” Carter spokesperson Harley Adsit said.

Democratic Party of Georgia spokesperson Devon Cruz said Kemp is “fanning the flames of an already chaotic GOP U.S. Senate primary.”

Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley and was a lawyer before he went into coaching. Derek Dooley compiled a 15-21 record with the Tennessee Volunteers before he was fired in 2012. After that he was an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Missouri, the New York Giants and the University of Alabama.

Kemp and Dooley spoke Saturday at a tailgate party blocks away from Sanford Stadium, where Georgia’s playing field is named for his father, before the Bulldogs kicked off their game against Marshall University.

Dooley hasn’t shied from his football past. He said Saturday that in both coaching and politics, “leadership matters,” saying coaching was about “bringing people together, finding some common ground and bringing hope and opportunity for them every day.”

But other candidates argue Dooley was a failure at coaching and are underscoring his affiliation with a non-Georgia school. Collins posted a University of Georgia football schedule online Friday with a picture of Dooley standing in for the Sept. 13 game against Tennessee.

Jeff Amy, The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It’s either a plan to save democracy from President Donald Trump’s attempts to rig elections or a power grab by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

The race to define Newsom’s push to redraw California’s congressional map before the 2026 midterms is underway with about five weeks until voters can begin casting early ballots on Proposition 50. The prevailing narrative could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the last two years of Trump’s second term.

Days into the campaign, supporters and opponents each brought in more than $10 million. That’s a fraction of the $100 million-plus expected to be spent to win over voters by Nov. 4. The contest also is drawing some high-profile state politicians, including actor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a look at the campaigns and how they’re ramping up.

A national redistricting fight

The California ballot question is part of the unusual mid-decade redistricting that Texas Republicans kicked off last month at Trump’s direction. By pressing GOP-led states to redraw congressional district boundaries in the party’s favor, the president hopes to prevent Democrats from taking control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections.

Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to regain the House majority, which would give them the power to subpoena Trump, investigate his administration and block his legislative agenda.

Republican state lawmakers in Texas passed a bill aiming to make five Democratic-held congressional seats more winnable for the GOP. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law Friday.

California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature responded in kind. Lawmakers last week approved a plan, which Newsom quickly signed, to ask voters to approve new House district boundaries that shore up shaky Democratic districts and pick up as many as five GOP-held seats.

Newsom and Democratic allies are mobilizing

Newsom and his Democratic allies have raised at least $12 million from roughly 400,000 small donations so far, according to a campaign spokesperson. They are also leaning on wealthy donors and influential interest groups aligned with Democrats. The California Teachers Association and House Majority PAC, an independent expenditure group backing Democratic House candidates, each put in at least $3 million.

Newsom contributed $2 million from his own campaign funds, while the Service Employees International Union and the California Labor Federation each gave $1 million. Other top donors include business and technology executives Bill Bloomfield, Paul Graham, John Pritzker and Andrew Hauptman.

The move is necessary to push back on Trump’s aggressive agenda, Newsom said, adding that he is convinced Trump will not leave the White House after his second term, though there is a constitutional ban on serving more than two terms. The campaign has explicitly tied the redistricting effort to the fate of American democracy.

“Wake up, we’re losing this country in real time,” Newsom said. “This is not bloviating. This is not exaggeration. It’s happening.”

Republicans are building their war chests

On the other side, multiple groups have emerged opposing the measure, each with a different approach.

Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, led by McCarthy and Jessica Millan Patterson, a former state GOP chair, frames Newsom’s initiative as a scheme by Democrats to boost their own influence.

Patterson said the group wants to be sure that “people who believe that the power belongs with the people and not with Sacramento politicians are educated and are turned out to vote.”

Another group, Protect Voters First, is casting Newsom’s plan as an attack on California’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission. Charles Munger Jr., a prolific California donor who spent millions of dollars to support the creation of the commission, has contributed $20 million and signaled he is open to spending as much as needed to reach voters.

Schwarzenegger, one of the most notable champions of that commission, will continue speaking out against the gerrymandering efforts. The Republican hasn’t committed to any formal campaigns and isn’t planning on setting up his own committee, his representative said.

Mailers from opposing groups already reached voters this week. One from Munger’s organization cites criticism of the unusual midcycle redistricting by some Democrats and good-government advocates such as the League of Women Voters.

TV and digital ads from both sides are expected to go live as soon as this weekend. Campaigns are also planning canvassing efforts to reach undecided voters.

If voters approve the new map, it would replace the existing one drawn by the independent commission and remain through 2030 elections. The commission then would resume its power to draw new boundaries using 2030 census data.

Other states may join in

Both parties are looking across the U.S. map to see where else they can press their advantage. Republicans are eying gains in Indiana, Missouri and Florida; Democrats see potential in Maryland, New York and Illinois.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Friday, a Republican, called lawmakers into a special session next week to consider redistricting, looking to add another GOP-friendly district.

The moves so far in Texas and California have faced legal challenges. The California Supreme Court dismissed two lawsuits filed by Republican lawmakers, but opponents said they would keep challenging the map.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican whose district would grow more Democratic if California’s new map survives, hopes voters will ignore what’s happening in Texas and at the White House. The question facing voters is only about California and its elections, he said.

“It makes no sense to say that if some other state is doing something that we don’t like, we should then respond by doing too,” said Kiley, who opposes the Texas redistricting plan and recently introduced legislation to ban all midcycle redistricting efforts nationwide. “That fails the test of kindergarten logic. Two wrongs doesn’t make a right.”

Democrats in Washington are confident strong candidates are ready to run in the newly attainable California districts if voters approve.

In addition to Kiley, the proposed California map also targets Republicans Doug LaMalfa, who represents mostly rural areas of Northern California, and Ken Calvert in Southern California’s suburban Inland Empire. Their districts would become significantly less conservative.

The Democratic map also takes aim at Republicans David Valadao in the Central Valley agricultural region and Darrell Issa in the San Diego area.

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Cooper reported from Phoenix.

Trân Nguyễn And Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press

Thoughts and prayers.

The invocation appears like a litany after every mass shooting — and the backlash is just as inevitable.

As if the slaughter of children amid screams and shattered stained glass wasn’t cause enough for grief, American opinion makers were convulsed once again this week in a debate over the role of prayer in the wake of a mass shooting, this time at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Those who support some legal restrictions on guns, often Democrats, say that Republican politicians who appeal to prayer are trying to distract from their own inaction on such things as red flag laws or stricter background checks on gun purchases.

“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told a news conference after the shooting, in which an assailant killed two Annunciation students and wounded 18 other people attending Mass.

Critics, especially on the right, chided the Democratic mayor.

“It is shocking to me that so many left wing politicians attack the idea of prayer in response to a tragedy,” Republican Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, posted on X. “Literally no one thinks prayer is a substitute for action. We pray because our hearts are broken and we believe that God is listening.”

The debate is not just about the power of prayer. In the United States — with both a large religious population and the most mass shootings in the world — it’s also a polarized debate about gun control.

In other words, the episode set off rhetorical skirmishes along two of the biggest dividing lines in America’s cultural and political wars: God and guns. (That doesn’t even count the scrutiny over the motives and gender identity of the shooter, who died by suicide after the attack.)

Prayers good but ‘not enough’

Frey tapped into the principle of “Tikkun Olam,” in his Jewish faith, which speaks about repairing the world.

“The meaning there is, prayers are good, but they are not enough,” Frey said on CNN. “It’s only adequate if you can attach an action to the work. And in this case, we know what the solutions are. They’ve been the same solutions three years ago, five years ago, 15 years ago.”

He said if Vance would support legislation to curb gun violence, “maybe we’re not really having an argument.”

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was one of 17 murdered in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, replied angrily to Vance’s post on X.

“I am not a left wing politician. I am the father of Jaime who was murdered in the Parkland shooting,” Guttenberg posted on X. “YOU ARE MISERABLE AND WRONG. It is shocking to me how politicians like you mock and use the idea of ‘thoughts and prayers’ to cover for your prior and future inaction and the reality that I visit my forever 14 daughter at the cemetery.”

This has been a long-running debate. After a 2015 California mass shooting left 14 people dead, the New York Daily News ran a front-page headline, “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS,” surrounded by tweets from Republican politicians offering prayers in response. The newspaper opined that “cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.”

Similar sentiments followed the latest Minneapolis shooting. “America prays but does not act. Gun worship is killing us,” the Rev. Jacqui Lewis of Middle Collegiate Church in New York posted on X.

Republicans, in turn, have framed mass gun violence in terms of a mental health crisis or, in cases such as the Annunciation attack, hate crimes against religious groups, while emphasizing the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms.”

The debate after the Minneapolis attack quickly and starkly turned political.

Current and former White House spokeswomen also got into the mix.

Jen Psaki, who was spokesperson for former President Joe Biden, stated on X: “Prayer is not freaking enough. … Prayer does not bring these kids back.”

Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for President Donald Trump, retorted in a news conference: “In a time of mourning like this, when beautiful young children were killed while praying in a church, it’s utterly disrespectful to deride the power of prayer in this country, and it’s disrespectful to the millions of Americans of faith.”

Talking past each other

John Fea, a historian of American politics and religion, said politicians have long called for prayers in crises such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. Most religious traditions would say that “at least prayers are appropriate in a situation like this,” he said.

But both sides talk past each other about next steps.

Everyone wanting stricter gun laws “sees the idea of thoughts and prayers as not accomplishing anything,” said Fea, a fellow at the Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

And to be sure, “a significant number of those who offer thoughts and prayers at these moments also oppose gun control,” he noted.

It’s not that they don’t want action, but they are “raising questions of spiritual problems in the culture or mental health issues that need to be addressed,” Fea said. “Anything but gun legislation.”

The two major parties have starkly different religious constituencies, which reflects how they talk about prayer. Republicans have drawn strong support from conservative white and Latino evangelicals and other white Christians; Democrats have a more diverse coalition of minority racial and religious groups and secular voters.

Catholics across the divide

Pope Leo XIV focused on the spiritual in his response, sending “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.”

While the first American pope didn’t address gun control this week, he appeared to do so when he was a lesser-known Bishop Robert Prevost in 2017, according to the Substack site Letters from Leo. After a mass shooting in Las Vegas, a Twitter account in Prevost’s name retweeted a senator’s post that castigated his colleagues for not approving more gun controls, saying their “cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.”

Catholic bishops reflect the divide.

“While we join our prayers with others that those injured in body and spirit will heal and that the murdered children will be received into heaven, we must also cry out for action to prevent even one more such tragedy,” said Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich.

In a statement, he called for “common sense” policies to limit guns’ availability, lamenting that such ideas “have been largely rejected in the name of a freedom not found in our constitution.” He also called for restoration in funding cuts to mental health.

Bishop Robert Barron called Mayor Frey’s comment’s “asinine,” in a Fox News Digital interview that he reposted on his Facebook page, which has 3 million followers. Barron is bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, but has a wider reach with his Word on Fire Ministries.

“Friends, prayer doesn’t magically protect us from suffering,” Barron added in his post. “At its core, prayer is raising the mind and heart to God, which is absolutely appropriate in times of deep pain.”

Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda, whose flock includes those at Annunciation, emphasized both prayer and action.

“We need an end to gun violence,” he said.

“Our community is rightfully outraged at such horrific acts of violence perpetrated against the vulnerable and innocent,” he said. “They are far too commonplace. While we need to commit to working to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies, we also need to remind ourselves that we have a God of peace and of love, and that it is his love that we will need most as we strive to embrace those who are hurting so deeply.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Peter Smith And Tiffany Stanley, The Associated Press

Kilmar Abrego Garcia ’s request for asylum in the United States is a prudent legal strategy, experts say, because it gives his lawyers better options for fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him.

But it’s also a gamble. Depending on how the courts rule, Abrego Garcia could end up back inside the notorious El Salvador prison where he claims he was beaten and psychologically tortured.

“It’s a strategic move,” Memphis-based immigration attorney Andrew Rankin said of the asylum request. “And it can certainly backfire. But it’s something I would do as well if I were representing him.”

Abrego Garcia, 30, became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native country in March. The Republican administration is trying to deport him again.

Here are some things to know about his case:

‘You can’t win every case’

The administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because U.S. officials said he was an MS-13 gang member. It’s an allegation that Abrego Garcia denies and for which he wasn’t charged.

His removal to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s ruling from 2019 that barred his deportation there. The judge found that Abrego Garcia faced credible threats from a local gang that had extorted and terrorized his family.

Following a U.S. Supreme Court order, the administration returned him to the United States in June. But it was only to face human smuggling charges, which his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive.

The administration has said it now intends to deport Abrego Garcia to the African country of Uganda. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and the main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, told reporters Friday that Garcia has “said he doesn’t want to go back to El Salvador.”

Miller said the administration is “honoring that request by providing him with an alternate place to live.”

In an effort to fight back, Abrego Garcia has notified the U.S. government that he fears being sent to Uganda, which has documented human rights abuses. He said he believes he could be persecuted, tortured or sent from there to El Salvador.

But even if he thwarts deportation to Uganda in immigration court, he likely will face attempts to remove him to another country and then another until the administration succeeds, Rankin said.

“By the law of averages, you can’t win every case,” the lawyer said. “The government has sunk its teeth far into what they’re doing with Kilmar and immigration in general, that it wouldn’t make any sense for them to just give up the fight.”

Taking a risk

Asylum, however, could end the fight.

The request would place the focus solely back on his native El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia has previously shown that he has a credible fear of gang persecution.

But he’s taking a risk by reopening his 2019 immigration case, Rankin said. If he loses the bid for asylum, an immigration judge could remove his protection from being returned to his native country.

That could place him back in the infamous Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. It’s where, Abrego Garcia alleges in a lawsuit, he suffered severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation and psychological torture. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.

Abrego Garcia had applied for asylum in 2019. The immigration judge denied his request because it came more than a year after Abrego Garcia had arrived in the U.S. He had fled to Maryland without documentation around 2011.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers will likely argue that he has the right to request asylum now because he has been in the U.S. for less than a year after being wrongfully deported to El Salvador, Rankin said.

If approved, asylum could provide him with a green card and a path to citizenship.

‘Not going to let this go’

Abrego Garcia’s asylum petition would go through the U.S. immigration court system, which is not part of the judiciary but an arm of the Department of Justice and under the Trump administration’s authority.

That’s where the risk comes in.

Abrego Garcia has a team of lawyers fighting for him, unlike many people who are facing deportation. And a federal judge is monitoring his immigration case.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland to ensure he can exercise his constitutional rights to fight against deportation in immigration court.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis cannot rule on whether he gets asylum or is deported, but she said she will ensure his right to due process. His team says say he is entitled to immigration court proceedings and appeals, including to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Even if he does manage to win asylum, the government is going to appeal,” Rankin said. “They’re not going to let this go. Why would they after they’ve invested months and months into this one guy.”

Rankin noted that if Abrego Garcia remains within the jurisdiction of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that court’s laws would govern his asylum claim. He said that court has been generally positive toward asylum claims and likely would give Abrego Garcia a “fair shake.”

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Associated Press writer Luena Rodriguez-Feo Vileira in Washington contributed to this report.

Ben Finley, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Randy “Duke” Cunningham, whose feats as a U.S. Navy flying ace during the Vietnam War catapulted him to a U.S House of Representatives career that ended in disgrace when he was convicted of accepting $2.4 million in bribes, has died. He was 83.

Cunningham died Wednesday at a hospital in a Little Rock, Arkansas, according to former Rep. Duncan L. Hunter, who spent time with him a week before his passing.

He “represented the very best of American heroes who go out to meet our enemies at the gates,” said Hunter, whose served alongside Cunningham in Congress.

Cunningham was one of the most highly decorated pilots in the Vietnam War, becoming the first Navy fighter ace in the war for shooting down five enemy aircraft. He received a Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, 15 Air Medals and a Purple Heart for his actions during the war.

“With complete disregard for his own personal safety he continued his attack through a hail of cannon fire to rescue his wingman,” read the citation for his second Silver Star.

Involved in biggest bribery scandal

He went on to serve eight terms in Congress before pleading guilty in 2005 to receiving illegal gifts from defense contractors in exchange for government contracts and other favors, in what was considered at the time to be the largest bribery scandal in congressional history.

The Republican congressman from San Diego admitted to accepting a luxury house, a yacht, a Rolls-Royce, lavish meals and $40,000 in Persian rugs and antique furniture from companies in exchange for steering lucrative contracts their way. He was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison in March 2006.

His corruption case was one of several that led to the creation of the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2008.

“In my life, I have known great joy and great sorrow. And now I know great shame,” Cunningham said in his resignation statement. “I cannot undo what I have done. But I can atone.”

He took a less contrite tone as time went on, telling news organizations and others that he regretted his guilty plea and complaining that the Internal Revenue Service was draining his savings.

“A lot of these things that they say are bribes I can absolutely black-and-white prove 100% that they were reimbursement for things that I had already paid,” Cunningham said in a phone interview with KGTV while he was in prison.

In December 2012, Cunningham was released from a federal prison in Arizona to serve the remainder of his sentence in a federal halfway house in New Orleans. It was the longest prison sentence for a member of Congress for taking bribes until Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson got 13 years in 2009.

His sentence also required he pay $1.8 million for back taxes and forfeit an additional $1.85 million for bribes he received, plus proceeds from the sale of a home in the highly exclusive San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. He was ordered to pay $1,500 a month in prison and $1,000 monthly after his release.

A strong conservative voice

Cunningham was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 1941, but grew up in Shelbina, Missouri, where his parents owned a five-and-dime store, according to court documents. He graduated from the University of Missouri and a few years later enlisted in the Navy in 1967.

He retired as a Navy commander in 1987 and gained national recognition as a media commentator on military topics. When he ran for office in 1990, he replaced Democratic Rep. Jim Bate in a left-leaning district who had been driven from office by charges of sexual harassment.

Cunningham took an interest in military affairs while in Congress and supported socially conservative positions. He drew attention for his outbursts — during a floor debate in 1995, he attacked his adversaries as “the same ones that would put homos in the military.”

“He brought military operational expertise to the debates in Congress,” said Hunter, recalling a debate he watched Cunningham have with a colleague over the fate of a fighter jet. “He was a strong conservative, strongly opinionated, and brought a real spark of light to the U.S. Congress.”

The disgraced former congressman received one of the pardons issued by President Donald Trump in 2021 at the end of his first term.

He has largely stayed out of the public eye since his release from prison, enjoying retirement in the countryside and serving as the president of the American Fighter Aces Association, according to Hunter.

He is survived by his wife, Sharon Cunningham, his adult son and two daughters, and other family members. His family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Jaimie Ding, The Associated Press