White House says some employees were fired by mistake

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene met with Elon Musk at the White House on Monday, sources familiar with the meeting tell ABC News.

This meeting comes just ahead of the first DOGE subcommittee hearing in the House that will be held on Wednesday. Greene is the chairwoman of the panel. The hearing will focus on improper payment fraud.

“We are looking at improper payments. We’re looking at potentially hundreds of billions of dollars that we can save just cutting out those improper payments – the payments to dead people, payments going overseas… cutting out complete fraud. I think it should be pretty bipartisan,” Greene said leaving the conference meeting.

Johnson applauded DOGE’s latest efforts and confirmed he met with Elon Musk to get an update, calling their work "very exciting."

-- ABC News' Lauren Peller

During a press conference Tuesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance because he’s right,” endorsing the vice president’s assertion that “judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.”

“I think the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” he said, adding that he does not feel uncomfortable with the president’s power and reiterating his confidence in the administration in doing “what’s right by the American people.”

More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups sued the Trump administration over the removal of the policy that barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting suspected undocumented in "sensitive areas," including houses of worship.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the groups said that the removal of the policy violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“The burden imposed on Plaintiffs’ religious exercise by the looming threat of immigration enforcement action at their places of worship and during their religious ceremonies is profound, as is the interference such action causes to Plaintiffs’ expressive association,” the groups wrote in the complaint.

The lawsuit comes three weeks after the Department of Homeland Security announced that federal immigration authorities will be permitted to target schools and churches after President Donald Trump revoked a directive barring arrests in “sensitive” areas.

-- ABC News' Laura Romero

The Vatican has released the text of a letter sent to U.S. bishops regarding their work with migrants, calling the "initiation of a program of mass deportations" to be a "major crisis."

"The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," the letter reads.

While recognizing the right of a nation to defend itself, the letter expresses "disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

The letter also referred to the current political climate as "delicate moments you are living."