Fire at New Mexico GOP headquarters under investigation as arson

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fire that damaged the entryway to the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters in Albuquerque is being investigated as arson, a fire official said Monday.

No suspect has been named in the Sunday morning blaze that’s under investigation by local authorities, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Incendiary materials were found on the scene, according to an ATF spokesperson. Spray paint on the side of the building read “ICE=KKK,” said Lt. Jason Fejer with Albuquerque Fire Rescue. Fejer said federal officials were taking over the arson investigation.

During a Monday press conference in front of the burned entryway — which was covered with plywood and had two burned doors propped against it — Republican leaders described the fire as a deliberate attack.

They sought to link the blaze to an “ongoing crime crisis” in New Mexico, including a shooting earlier this month in Las Cruces that left three people dead. Republican lawmakers have recently urged Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to exercise her authority to bring the legislators back to the Capitol to seek solutions to the violence.

“I urge the governor and Democratic colleagues to come to the table with meaningful solutions,” said state Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer. “Let's turn the temperature down and work together.”

The building, which authorities said was unoccupied at the time of the fire, had extensive damage from smoke and water used by firefighters, leaving the GOP offices uninhabitable for now.

Surveillance video from the inside the building captured images of the fire, said party spokeswoman Ash Soular. She declined Monday morning to give further details and said law enforcement asked the party not to release the video or discuss its contents in detail.

The weekend fire followed vandalism across the U.S. in recent weeks targeting dealerships for Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, who is leading Republican President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce. Trump has also sought to ramp up deportation efforts against people living in the country illegally, led by agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Democrats, including Gov. Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, denounced the fire and said politically motivated crimes are unacceptable.

“There is no excuse for political violence or vandalism of any kind, and I strongly condemn Sunday’s attack on the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters,” Lujan Grisham said in a Monday social media post.

Brown reported from Billings, Mont.

Republican Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Amy Barela, center, speaks during a news conference after a fire damaged the party's headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

New Mexico House Minor Floor Leader Gail Armstrong, center, speaks during a news conference after the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters was damaged by a fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Graffiti is seen on the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters behind yellow tape in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025 (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

A container holding American flags sits outside the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters following a news conference after a fire damaged the office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Supporters gather in front of the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters ahead of a news conference after the party's headquarters was damaged by a fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Republican Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Amy Barela speaks during a news conference after the party's headquarters was damaged by a fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Republican supporters hold flags as state party leaders and lawmakers speak during a news conference after the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters was damaged by a fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

The charred entrance doors to the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters sit propped up behind yellow tape in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge is for the second time ordering the Trump administration to return a Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, blasting the U.S. government in a ruling Sunday that noted a now-suspended Justice Department lawyer admitted he didn't know why the man was being held.

The order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis reaffirms a ruling she gave days earlier, shooting down arguments that the government can't facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia because he is no longer in U.S. custody.

“As defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador — let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote. “Having confessed grievous error, the defendants now argue that this Court lacks the power to hear this case, and they lack the power to order Abrego Garcia’s return.”

The Justice Department has asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause Xinis’ ruling.

Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national, was arrested in Maryland and deported last month despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that shielded him from deportation to El Salvador, where he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

Abrego Garcia had a permit from DHS to legally work in the U.S. and that he was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.

The White House has described Abrego Garcia's deportation as an “administrative error” but has also cast him an MS-13 gang member. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.

In her order Sunday, Xinis referenced earlier comments from now-suspended Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni in which Reuveni said: “We concede he should not have been removed to El Salvador” and that he responded “I don’t know” when asked why Abrego Garcia was being held.

The Justice Department placed Reuveni on leave after he made the comments.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” likened Reuveni's comments to “a defense attorney walking in, conceding something in a criminal matter.”

“That would never happen in this country,” she said. "So he’s on administrative leave now and we’ll see what happens.”

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department lawyer and founder of Justice Connection, a network of department alumni that works to support employees, released a statement that defended Reuveni and said he has “zealously represented the United States in some of the most high-stakes and controversial immigration cases under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.”

“Justice Department attorneys are being put in an impossible position: Obey the president, or uphold their ethical duty to the court and the Constitution," Young said. “We should all be grateful to DOJ lawyers who choose principle over politics and the rule of law over partisan loyalty.”

FILE - Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)