Trump 2nd term live updates: Trump defends tariffs, declines to comment on Ukraine aid

A federal appeals court is temporarily allowing President Donald Trump to remove the head of a watchdog agency, overturning a lower court’s decision from this weekend.

In a two-page ruling on Wednesday, a panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit granted an emergency stay of the lower court’s order, allowing the president to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger from his role running an independent watchdog agency tasked with protecting federal employees.

"This order gives effect to the removal of appellee from his position as Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel," the ruling said.

The judges – appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump – did not offer a reason when granting the stay.

Since being reinstated, Dellinger has spearheaded multiple efforts to protect federal employees, including winning a case earlier Wednesday that ordered more than 5,000 USDA employees to be reinstated after their terminations.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

The Trump administration signaled Wednesday that it could bring criminal referrals against people who are accused of misusing taxpayer dollars through USAID foreign contracts, according to lawmakers and people familiar with the comments.

Peter Marocco, the senior Trump administration official running USAID and overseeing the dismantling of its workforce and programs, spent roughly an hour on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a closed-door meeting with the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"It's a fluid situation based upon what is found," Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told ABC News, who said the administration's review of grants was ongoing. "You look at the thousands of these grants going on, who was recieving them? What was the actual cost to administer them?"

"It's every bit appropriate," Mast said of Marocco's review.

Democrats criticized Marocco for not appearing in public to discuss his work. Mast said he planned to hold a public hearing on USAID with Marocco but did not lay out a timeframe for doing so.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel and Shannon Kingston

One of the largest detention centers for migrant families that was closed during the Biden administration is reopening, according to a private prison contractor.

CoreCivic, one of the nation’s largest private companies, says it reached an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to reopen the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

According to the company, the Dilley facility was built for ICE in 2014 to provide “an appropriate setting for a family population.”

The facility, which can hold up to 2,400 individuals, was closed after funding for the contract with ICE was terminated in 2024. The new contract announced on Wednesday expires in 2030.

“With this award and the additional capacity provided to ICE through four contract modifications we announced last week, we are grateful for the trust our government partner has placed in us,” CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger said in a statement. “We are entering a period when our government partners -- particularly our federal government partners -- are expected to have increased demand. We anticipate continued robust contracting activity throughout 2025 that will help meet their growing needs."

The revenue from the new contract is expected to be approximately $180 million, the company said in a statement.

The announcement comes weeks after CoreCivic’s earnings call where executives said they anticipate the Trump administration's new immigration policies will lead to "the most significant growth" in the company's history over the next several years.

Executives on the call said they offered 28,000 beds to ICE, including the South Texas Family Residential Center.

"I've worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods of my career,” Hininger said on the call.

-ABC News’ Laura Romero

President Trump claims he notified Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that she must clean up the homeless encampments, specifically those near the State Department and the White House.

“Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The President has long called for improved safety in Washington.

About two weeks ago aboard Air Force One the president said that the federal government should take over D.C. to make it safe again.

“Too much crime, too much -- too many tents on the lawns -- these magnificent lawns,” Trump said at the time.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh