REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes and at least one confirmed death, authorities said Monday.
In Redding, a city at the northern end of the Central Valley, one motorist died after calling 911 while trapped in their vehicle as it filled up with water, Mayor Mike Littau posted online Monday. Police said they received numerous calls for drivers stranded in flooded areas.
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Dekoda Cruz works to clear a drain following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A man rides in a pick-up truck bed while salvaging belongings from a flooded storage unit following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through the flooded office of Northstate Tire & Wheel following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
“Redding police officer swam out into the water, broke the windows and pulled victim to shore. CPR was done but the person did not live,” Littau wrote.
The weather in the coming days could be even more dangerous, he warned.
The National Weather Service expected more rain through the Christmas week as a series of atmospheric rivers was forecast to make its way through Northern California. A large swath of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding areas were under a flood watch through Friday.
The weather pattern was expected to intensify by midweek, which could lead to potential mudslides, rockslides and flooding of creeks and streams, forecasters warned. Up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada and winds could reach 55 mph (90 kph) in high elevations by Wednesday.
Southern California can also expect a soggy Christmas, with heavy rain in the forecast starting Tuesday evening. The National Weather Service urged people to make backup plans for holiday travel.
In Redding and surrounding areas, between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 centimeters and 15.2 centimeters) had fallen by Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.
As of Monday morning, local roads in Redding remained flooded as street crews worked to clear debris and tow out abandoned cars.
Dekoda Cruz waded in knee-deep muddy water to check on a friend's flooded tire business, where the office was littered with a jumble of furniture and bobbing tires.
In the mountain pass area of Donner Summit, firefighters in Truckee extended a ladder to stranded residents at a house along the South Yuba River, the fire department posted online Sunday. No injuries were reported.
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.
Earlier this month, stubborn atmospheric rivers that drenched Washington state with nearly 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said. That rainfall was supercharged by warm weather and air plus unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as a tropical cyclone in Indonesia.
Dekoda Cruz works to clear a drain following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A man rides in a pick-up truck bed while salvaging belongings from a flooded storage unit following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through the flooded office of Northstate Tire & Wheel following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday will decide whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be returned to immigration custody after being free for just over a week.
“This is an extremely irregular and extraordinary situation," U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, of Maryland, told attorneys.
The Monday hearing was a glimpse into the complexity of immigration proceedings as Xinis tried to get information on the status of Abrego Garcia’s case. “I am trying to get to the bottom of whether there are going to be any removal proceedings,” she said as she questioned the government’s lawyer. “You haven’t told me what you’re going to do next."
Abrego Garcia, his wife and legal team were welcomed to the federal court building in Maryland by a boisterous reception that included a choir, bullhorn and drum as scores of supporters cheered. His mistaken deportation to El Salvador has become a lightning rod for both sides of the immigration debate. Inside the courtroom Abrego Garcia sat with at least half a dozen defense team members while a lone government attorney sat across from them.
Abrego Garcia had been in immigration detention since August before his Dec. 11 release. In that time, the government has said it planned to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia. However, officials have made no effort to deport him to the one country he has agreed to go to — Costa Rica. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, has even accused the government of misleading her by falsely claiming that Costa Rica was unwilling to take him.
The government's “persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal,” she wrote.
In court on Monday, Abrego Garcia's reiterated that he is prepared to go to Costa Rica “today.”
Xinis’ Dec. 11 order that Abrego Garcia be released from immigration custody also concluded that the immigration judge who heard his case in 2019 had failed to issue an order of removal from the U.S., and he cannot be deported anywhere without a removal order.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, finding he faced danger there from a gang that had targeted his family. In March, he was mistakenly deported there anyway. U.S. officials resisted calls to bring him back until the Supreme Court weighed in. However, officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S. and have vowed to deport him to a third country.
In filings last week, government attorneys argued that, with or without a final order of removal, they are still working to deport Abrego Garcia, so they can legally detain him during the process.
“If there is no final order of removal, immigration proceedings are ongoing, and Petitioner is subject to pre-final order detention,” they wrote.
For their part, Abrego Garcia's attorneys cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “because immigration proceedings ‘are civil, not criminal’ detention must be ‘nonpunitive.’” They argued that in Abrego Garcia's case, detention is punitive because the government wants to be allowed to hold him indefinitely without a viable plan to deport him.
“If immigration detention does not serve the legitimate purpose of effectuating reasonably foreseeable removal, it is punitive, potentially indefinite, and unconstitutional,” they wrote.
In addition to the Maryland case, Abrego Garcia is fighting human smuggling charges in a Tennessee court. His attorneys in that case on Friday asked the judge for sanctions after Border Patrol's Gregory Bovino made disparaging comments about their client on national news. The judge previously ordered Justice Department and Homeland Security officials to cease making comments that could prejudice Abrego Garcia's right to a fair trial.
Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives at the United States District Court District of Maryland, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Immigrant activists rally outside of the United States District Court District of Maryland in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives at the United States District Court District of Maryland, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Kilmar Abrego Garcia cries during a rally ahead of a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge's order. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Kilmar Abrego Garcia waits to enter the building for a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge's order. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Kilmar Abrego Garcia listens during a rally ahead of a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge's order. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
