--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
--:-- Leila Fadel: President Trump calls this Liberation Day, as in Tariff Day. We are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were. Markets have been jittery in anticipation will tariffs help or hurt the economy.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadel, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It was the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, and despite Elon Musk putting his money in support behind a conservative candidate, liberals held on to their state Supreme Court majority in Wisconsin.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world. How did this race become a referendum on Musk?
--:-- Leila Fadel: And the Trump administration has admitted to deporting a Maryland father by mistake. If they're allowed to get away with this, then it means that the immigration laws are meaningless, all of them.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from BetterHelp. President Fernando Madeira describes how BetterHelp online therapy has helped him.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right? It's going to be there and they're going to listen to me and I can't start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today. And it feels natural. I love it.
--:-- Announcer: To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Lisa. Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality, and each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind. Plus, they back it all up with free shipping, easy returns, and a 100-night sleep trial. Visit Lisa.com for 25% off mattresses, plus get an extra $50 off with promo code NPR.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: Support for NPR and the following message come from USPS. With USPS Ground Advantage Service, it's like your shipment has a direct line to you. It leaves the dock, you know about it. It's on the road, you know. And when it reaches your customer, you guessed it, you're still in the know.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: Here's the real game changer. It's one journey, one partner, total peace of mind. Check out USPS Ground Advantage Service at USPS.com slash in the know. Because if you know, you know.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It's a big day on President Trump's calendar, something he's been calling Liberation Day. A day when he says he's going to make good on a promise to impose tariffs on many, many countries.
--:-- Leila Fadel: I think people will be pleasantly surprised, but it's going to make our country very rich because we're the piggy bank that everybody steals from. And they've been doing it for many years, for decades, and we're not going to let it happen.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The president says he's made up his mind on which tariffs to impose where, although we don't know the details yet.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Markets have been nervous leading up to this day amid concerns that taxes on imports hurt rather than help the U.S. economy and also raise consumer prices.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to tell us what to expect. Good morning, Danielle.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Good morning. What do we know about these tariffs?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, we know Trump's going to lay them out at a big Rose Garden event at 4 p.m. Eastern, but his team has given few details on this.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: He and his advisers, in fact, were still working on the tariffs yesterday, which is itself notable. I mean, this is a potentially sweeping trade policy that has not been clearly communicated yet.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But as for what he's announcing, these are what he's been calling reciprocal tariffs, which he has said could apply to many different items in all countries.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: So give us an example there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Sure. So this week White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt showed reporters a graphic of all kinds of tariffs on U goods And one example was Mexico 150 tariff on American alcohol
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: So a reciprocal tariff in this example could be the U imposing a 150 tariff on Mexican alcohol.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, again, I want to stress this is just a hypothetical I'm giving. But in this example, that would mean U.S. importers would pay a 150% tax to bring that alcohol into the country.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: And in most cases, we could expect American businesses to either eat that cost or pass it on to consumers.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so that sounds like it could get pretty expensive.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Yeah, it could. And stock markets and consumers are taking Trump seriously on this. Consumer confidence and stock indexes have been plummeting as reciprocal tariff day has grown closer.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And amid that, Trump seems to have softened on this idea of equal tariffs.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Here he was talking to reporters this week. They took advantage of us and we are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were. The numbers will be lower than what they've been charging us.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, given that we don't know the details of these tariffs, do we know anything about how they'll affect people here in the U.S.?
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, we have some broad ideas. One is that they'll lead to higher prices. The Yale Budget Lab did one hypothetical modeling of what these tariffs could look like, finding that in the short run, they'd cost the average household around $3,000 a year.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And those costs, by the way, would hit lower income households harder than higher income.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: If this is so risky for the economy, what has the president said about why he's doing this?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, the Trump administration says this is about fairness and also about creating manufacturing jobs.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: That's what Trump ran on, and a lot of his base is in blue-collar jobs like manufacturing.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And some manufacturers could be helped by the tariffs. I mean, if goods from other countries get more expensive, it would mean people in the U.S. would buy more goods made in the U.S.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: But some U.S. manufacturers will also pay more for materials, which could offset whatever benefits they might see from the tariffs.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And there's one more economic risk, and that's that other countries see this and then they retaliate with their own tariffs.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: And farmers would be a likely target there. So there's a real risk here for Trump. He has acknowledged that these tariffs could cause short-term pain.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that means voters could easily in the future pin any weakness from the economy on him.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Thank you, Danielle.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: President Trump was not on the ballot, but elections in two states are being viewed as an early indicator of how voters feel about him after his first few months in office.
--:-- Leila Fadel: In Florida, Republicans hung on to two congressional seats in deeply red districts, cementing their slim majority in the U.S. House.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Solid wins for Republicans, although the margins were a little bit less than they were just last year.
--:-- Leila Fadel: In Wisconsin, in what became the most expensive judicial race in American history, the liberal judge Susan Crawford was elected to the state Supreme Court.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She beat conservative Brad Schimmel, who ran with Trump's endorsement, and some $20 million from Elon Musk, along with groups affiliated with him.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Here's Crawford last night. As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world. For justice in Wisconsin. And we won.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Chuck Kornbach of member station WUWM joins me now from Milwaukee. Good morning, Chuck.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Good morning.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: OK, so what happened in the race?
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Well in the end the liberal judge from Madison Crawford won with a comfortable margin about 235 votes nine percentage points over Schimmel the conservative judge from suburban Milwaukee Crawford even took some counties that have gone pretty often for Republicans in recent years, including Brown County, that's mainly Green Bay, where Elon Musk held a rally Sunday night.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: One of the other big stories from last night was the surge in voter turnout on both sides, Early voting and in-person voting exceeded many clerks' expectations.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: And of course, there was the spending. Both sides spent really big.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Yeah, Musk and groups associated with him spent about $20 million.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Crawford had a lot of money to spend, though, too, including from mega donors like George Soros and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, Elon Musk became a big part of this race, as you point out, and Trump's endorsement, too. Anything to take away from Schimmel's loss in that regard?
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Well, a few things. this race, even though the court is nonpartisan, it was definitely a win for Democrats, and they're claiming victory against the president, his administration, and Musk.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I heard that from voters, too. They say Musk's doge effort is going too fast, too broadly.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: From young voters, though, I also heard a lot about reproductive rights, which was the big issue in the last state Supreme Court election we had here two years ago.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: From more conservative voters, I heard support for the President and for Musk, and that Schimmel could protect Trump's policies and agenda.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: The state GOP says they're disappointed about last night, but are looking forward to 2026, when they say they'll have the opportunity to defend President Trump's agenda in more elections.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so back to the court. Liberals have kept their majority. What cases are expected to go before the justices?
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Well, abortion is already in front of the court. They're going to have to decide soon on whether an 1849 Wisconsin law that halted abortions here for 15 months right after the Dobbs decision is constitutional.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Next, the matter of Act 10, that's the big fight from 15 years ago that curtailed union bargaining rights for most public sector workers.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: The court could decide if parts of that law are unconstitutional.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And one issue we heard a lot about from Musk and was congressional redistricting, his contention that Democrats would try to pick up a couple of U.S. House seats here.
--:-- Chuck Kornbach: Democrats told me last night when I asked about this, hey, we want to enjoy Crawford's win and our lawyers will decide whether to pursue the redistricting issue before a court that will stay four to three liberal.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Thank you, Chuck.
--:-- Leila Fadel: On Friday, a lawyer plans to ask a court to order the return of his client to the United States.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: President Trump's administration admits sending the man to El Salvador despite knowing about a court order preventing them from doing that.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Responding to questions from reporters, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt spoke of Kilmer Armando Abrego-Garcia.
--:-- Caroline Levitt: Well, first of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: By calling it an administrative error, the government avoids saying they deliberately defied a court order.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The government goes on to assert that a judge should have no power to overrule the mistake and the administration does not want to bring the man back anyway.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.
--:-- Leila Fadel: His lawyers questioned the government's claim that he is a gang member at all, says he wasn't convicted of a crime and that he was not supposed to be sent specifically to El Salvador.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's immigration policy reporter, Jimena Ostio, has more. Hi, Jimena.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Hi, good morning. Okay, so tell us what we know about who Abrego LaGostia is and what happened to him.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He was from El Salvador and living in Maryland with his child and his wife who is a U citizen but Abrego Garcia already went through immigration courts In 2019 he was served with his notice to appear before a judge
--:-- Jimena Ostio: The judge found that he could be deported, but Abrego Garcia was able to make the case against being deported back to El Salvador.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The government appealed, but lost.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: And then last month, he was apprehended by immigration officials once more.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And his wife only realized that he had been transferred to a mega prison in El Salvador because she recognized his tattoos on a photo from the El Salvador government.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Okay, so the administration admits in court they knew they couldn't deport him to El Salvador, but they deported him anyways?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Yes.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: In court filings, immigration officials admitted that Abrego Garcia's deportation was an administrative error, but they are doubling down on his deportation.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Vice President J.D. Vance alleged on social media that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Abrego Garcia's lawyer, however, disputes the claims of criminal history noting that he's never been convicted of a crime in the U.S. or any other country, nor has there been significant evidence of his ties to the gang.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: His lawyers argue that the government could have deported him anywhere but El Salvador, but they ignore those earlier orders.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: So what does his lawyer say about this insistence by the government that Garcia cannot be returned?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Simon Sandoval-Moschenberg, who is representing Abrego Garcia, raised concerns about the implications that this has on other immigration court cases.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: I mean, if they're allowed to get away with this, then it means that the immigration laws are meaningless, all of them.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: On Friday, he will ask a federal judge to order the U.S. to bring Abrego Garcia back.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: The government is poised to argue that it's too late because Abrego Garcia is in the custody of another government.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But his lawyer says that if courts cannot order him returned from a place he should legally not be, eventually the government could do the same to a U.S. citizen.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Now, are these men that have been detained and accused of crimes, like being part of a criminal gang, supposed to get due process?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Depending on where you're detained and how long you've been in the country, you could have your day in court to convince a judge that you should stay.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: The government brings their own attorneys to argue that you should be removed, and then people get a chance to defend themselves.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Sometimes that defense can be claiming asylum or asking to not be deported to a specific country.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Then a judge decides whether they agree.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that didn't happen in these cases.
--:-- Jimena Ostio: Thank you so much.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that's Up First for Wednesday, April 2nd. I'm Leila Fadel. And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Leila Fadel: For your next listen, Consider Consider This from NPR News. We hear it up first, give you the first three big stories of the day. And our Consider This colleagues take a different approach, diving into a single news story. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Acacia Squires, Anna Yukhananov, Lisa Thomson, and Alice Woelfle.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from NPR sponsor, Capella University. Interested in a quality online education? Capella is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from the Nature Conservancy. Nature is common ground for everyone, and uniting to protect nature can help solve today's challenges and create a thriving tomorrow for future generations. Discover why at nature.org slash NPR.
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Capital One. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank for details. Capital One N.A. Member FDIC.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Thank you.
--:-- [Up First theme music ends]
