Up First from NPR - Zelenskyy and Peace Promises, Abrego Garcia Release, Indiana Rejects Redistricting

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s willing to hold elections if the US and other allies help ensure security. Is that a promise Trump can make as he pushes Ukraine to surrender territory to Russia? Also, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man illegally deported by the Trump administration in March and eventually returned, is now free from immigration custody. Plus, Republicans in Indiana have rejected a redistricting proposal. President Trump successfully pushed other states to redraw their congressional maps to help Republicans win next year’s midterm elections, so why did Indiana’s Republicans break with the president?Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kate Bartlett, Anna Yukhananov, Larry Kaplow and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh StrangeOur Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is willing to hold elections. He is also willing to discuss giving up territory to Russia, but only if Ukrainians vote for it. How would that work? I'm Michelle Martin with Stevenskiy, and this is up first from NPR News. A man illegally deported by the Trump administration in March, and eventually returned, is now free from immigration custody. The Trump administration says it will appeal Kilmorrow, Grego Garcia's court-ordered release. Plus, Republicans in Indiana reject a redistricting proposal.

President Trump successfully pushed other states to help Republicans win next year's mid-term elections. So why did Indiana's Republicans break with the president? Stay with us for the news you need to start your day. Hey, hey, it's Brittany Luce from It's Been a Minute. Your voicemail box is full. Okay, I'll admit it. So is mine. So I'm leaving this for you here.

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Listen to Alt Latino in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Ukraine's president has an answer to pressure from the Trump administration. The U.S. wants Ukraine to surrender territory as part of a peace deal with Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky says, for that to happen, the Ukrainian people would have to speak through a referendum. Zelensky and other Europeans are offering answers and alternatives to Trump's bid to end the war. The U.S. approach seems to favor Russia, although Russia has not accepted that either. NPRS. Joanna. Kikis is in Kiev, as she has been through much of this word. She's with us now. Good morning, Joanna.

Good morning, Michelle. Why would Zelensky talk about elections now? Well, he is responding to pressure from President Trump, and he's also trying to work with Europeans. German Chancellor Friedrich Meritz said on Thursday that they are proposing a ceasefire that would be backed by strong security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe.

He also said that Ukraine is willing to discuss territorial concessions, but that Trump must understand that the final decision is up to Ukrainians. Here's Merritt. He's saying it would be a mistake, he's saying it would be a mistake to force the Ukrainian president into a peace that his people will not accept after four years of suffering and death. And then Zelensky says there would have to be a vote.

Why say that? Well, Zelensky has been walking something of a tightrope, but he is engaging with even the most painful proposals by the Trump administration to show that Ukraine is negotiating in good faith. At the same time, he knows giving up territory has always been a red line for Ukrainians. You know, and this is interesting because Trump, has been saying that Ukraine should hold elections. How does that fit in? Well, Trump said recently that Zelensky's government is using the war to avoid elections. And this echoes what the Kremlin has been

saying, which they say Zelensky is not a legitimate president because his term expired last year. But there is also a good reason that there have not been Ukrainian elections. Ukraine is under martial law because of Russia's invasion. And Ukraine's constitution forbids holding elections during wartime. Nevertheless, Zelensky said he is examining the possibility of elections over the next 90 days or even a referendum on giving up parts of eastern Ukraine in exchange for ending the war. He's saying, if this is something our key partner in Washington wants, we have to look into it. So could elections in Ukraine be imminent? Well, there are many obstacles to that.

Ivana Klimbush-Sadda, she's a member of Ukraine's parliament, she told me about a legal obstacle. During the martial law, it is prohibited to change the Constitution. It's just like purely stated in law and in the Constitution. And then she says there are huge logistical challenges, like how 4 million Ukrainian refugees could vote or how soldiers on the front line could vote. Right. To that end, imagine security is a major issue. Yes, absolutely. Public opinion poll show most Ukrainians think holding elections now is actually a terrible idea. Yulia Kripe, who works in customer service here in Keev, she told

us, Russia could attack voting precincts. It's very possible that they attack, because they attack us every day. We have to gather many people in one place. It's dangerous. Now, Zelensky says elections could only happen during a ceasefire and with security guarantees from the West. And, Michelle, if elections were held soon, sometimes soon, public opinion polls showed that Zelensky would still come in first.

That is. and Piaz Joanna Kikis in Kiev. Joanna, thank you so much. You're welcome. Kilmar Abrago-Gargo-Garcia is walking free. He is the man illegally deported by the Trump administration in March and eventually returned. Abrago-Garcia was released on Thursday. A judge ruled the government had not been able to produce a lawful order to remove him from the country.

This ruling came just as lawmakers. have been pressing the Homeland Security Secretary about President Trump's compliance with court orders. NPR's Jimenez-Bustio has been tracking this, and she is with us now. Good morning, Jimena. Good morning. Tell us about how the judge who presided over this case explained her decision. Judge Palazzini's of Maryland said that the government's arguments to keep him detained were, quote, troubling and that he had no current pending removal order to justify keeping him detained. Remember, this was a man who'd been living in the U.S. for more than 10 years. In 2019, an immigration judge had ruled that Abrago Garcia could not be removed to El Salvador, where he had argued that he could be tortured or persecuted. Then he was arrested and detained by immigration officers in Maryland earlier this year, but the Trump administration deported him to El Salvador, sending him to a notorious prison there.

After months of public outcry, the administration brought Abrago Garcia back and immediately charged him with human smuggling in a separate case. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Now, government lawyers have also tried and failed to convince Zinis that they are trying to deport him to a third country like Uganda or Eswatini, but they haven't done so. So what's next in his case? So the White House has said that it will appeal, and lawyers for Abrago Garcia called the order to release him an extraordinary victory for their client and for due process. You know, Jimenez, this seems like a lot of back and forth over one person. So how has the government justified its actions? A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the order, quote, naked judicial activism. Brigo Garcia has become one of the symbols of the Trump administration's fight with the judicial branch of government.

Democrats say that it's an example of the administration going too far. Christine Nome's, the Homeland Security Secretary, happened to be testifying yesterday at a congressional hearing on worldwide threats. But Democrats took the opportunity to press her on domestic immigration enforcement. and the following of court orders, Representative Sheree Thanadar asked if she would comply with court orders and here's how Nome responded. The Department of Homeland Security and this administration complies with all federal court orders. We always have and we always... Not too.

And we will continue to appeal. The administration has consistently clashed with judges this year, especially on issues related to immigration. Anyway, I understand that lawmakers pressed Nome on other issues as well yesterday. What were they? Democrats raised numerous examples about how they believe the administration has. has overstepped its authority. Present in the audience were family members of people who had been deported or put in detention,

invited there by Democrats as examples of the impact of immigration enforcement. Nome at one point turned to a man present at the hearing and she said she would look into the case of his wife, an Irish woman who is detained. Democrats argue that she is in the U.S. legally and her only criminal record is writing a $25 bad check 10 years ago. The administration has said it wants to remove anyone with a criminal record. record. Nome and Republicans doubled down on the administration's policies. Nome said she believed that the biggest threat to national security are the immigrants who entered the U.S. under

former President Biden. Her department is reopening the cases of refugees who were admitted under Biden and is calling for a review of asylum applications during that time, too. So we're seeing enforcement focus on those here illegally and some legal categories, too. That is NPRI's Jimenez-Bustillo. Jimana, thank you. Thank you. President Trump's nationwide effort to reshape the midterm elections in favor of Republicans has succeeded in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, but not in Indiana. Yeah, Republicans in those other states obeyed the president's order to skew the elections in Republicans' favor. Republican state senators, in my home state, decided otherwise. The president and his allies threatened consequences for Indiana if they did not submit.

After enough lawmakers ignored him, Trump minimized his defeat. Well, we won't have any other state. That's the only state. It's funny because I won Indiana all three times by a landslide. And I wasn't working on it very hard. It would have been nice. I think we would have picked up two seats if we did that. For more on this, we're joined by Ben Thorpe of WFY in Indianapolis. Good morning, Ben. Good morning. And you were there. So thanks for getting up early because you were there in the state capital pretty late. So tell us about the vote. Yeah, it was very suspenseful. There were protesters against redistricting in the Capitol, and you could kind of hear them as senators debated for over three hours. The outcome, I think, was really unknown, and in the end, the redistricting bill failed by a vote of only 19 in favor and 31 opposed.

It's important to mention that the Indiana Senate is heavily Republican, so of those 31 opposed, 21 were Republicans. Here's one of them. This is state Senator Spencer Deary, who said that redistricting just a district. to get political gain went against his conservative values. I see no justification that outweighs the harms it would inflict upon the people's faith in the integrity of our elections and our system of government. He said he'd fight with, quote, his last breath to prevent the federal government from bullying a state. Others just said their constituents did not want this.

So that state senator called it bullying. The Trump administration probably called it trying to be persuasive. So what did they do to try to steer this the president's way? Yeah, so it started months ago. Indiana lawmakers were brought to the White House. Vice President Vance went to Indiana. In fact, during the debate, Vance tweeted that Senate president pro tem Roger Bray was being dishonest in trying to defeat this bill. And Bray did ultimately vote against it. Trump and Republican Governor Mike Braun here threatened to back primary challenges against senators who didn't get on board. And the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted yesterday that he would come campaign here against them. You heard some of what Trump said there at the top.

He also said he'd support someone to run against Bray. For his part, the Governor Braun warned that, quote, decisions like this are going to carry political consequences. And what would this redistricting have done? Yeah, the state has seven Republican members of the House and two Democrats now. This would have redrawn the lines to help flip those last two seats. Supporters said it was legal, even though redistricting is normally done after the census at the start of the decade. They said Democratic-led states have gerrymandered like that in the past, but opponents said it would have divided up minority voters here in Indianapolis and put them in districts where their votes would be outnumbered by suburban and rural voters, basically diluting their vote. So where does President Trump's redistricting efforts stand now?

So far, Republicans have been able to tilt a couple more seats their way than Democrats. Texas redistricted to help the GOP when maybe five seats there, Missouri and North Carolina, each did one seat. California Democrats have counted by tilting five seats their way. But the question now is whether Republicans in other states where this is being considered, like Florida and Kansas, will go ahead with redistricting. That is. Ben Thorpe in Indianapolis. Ben, thank you. Thank you so much. And that's up first for Friday, December 12th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Steve Inskeep. On the radio, on morning edition, we're interviewing retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. about Ukraine's position on the battlefield, following up on the story you heard a moment ago. Also, the topic of this week's Sunday's story is whether a platonic best friend can also be a life partner. Weekend edition and Sunday Story host

Aisha Roscoe has something to say about that. This year, she bought a house with her bestie, and together they are co-parenting their five kids. You know, some people say, is it like the Brady Bunch? Well, a little bit, because it really is a blended family. This weekend on the Sunday story, a conversation between Aisha and authoritative.

Raina Cohen, about what happens when you put friendship at the center of your life. Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. Wow, I want to hear that. Today's Up First was edited by Kate Bartlett, Anna Yukoninoff, Larry Kaplow, Alice Wolfley, and Arzu Rezvani. It was produced by Ziat Batch, Neo-Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from the ever-supportive Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is the very direct Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler.

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