McAllen, Texas – Hubert Montoya laughed when the United States National Security Department sent an email to say that he should leave the country immediately or risk the consequences of being deported. He is an American citizen.
“I simply thought it was absurd,” said Austin’s immigration lawyer, Texas.
It was an apparent failure in the dismantling of the Trump administration of another Biden age policy that allowed people to live temporarily in the country. Customs and border protection of US used an online appointment application In the border crossings of the USA. UU. With Mexico he called CBP One, which brought more than 900,000 people from January 2023.
The revocation of CBP one permissions has lacked the fanfare and the formality of canceling the temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands whose homelands were considered insecure for the return and humanitarian probation for others in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela that came with financial sponsors. These movements arrived with official notices in the Federal Registry and press releases. Judges He stopped in effect After the defendant defense groups.
CBP One’s cancellation notices began landing in entry trays at the end of March without prior notice, some told the recipients to go immediately and others gave them seven days. The objectives included American citizens.
Timothy J. Brenner, a lawyer born in Connecticut in Houston, told him on April 11 to leave the United States “I worried that the administration has a list of immigration lawyers or a database trying to aim to harass,” he said.
CBP confirmed in a statement that issued notices that end the temporary legal status under CBP one. He did not say how many, only that they were not sent to all the beneficiaries, who totaled 936,000 at the end of December.
CBP said that notices can be sent to unwanted recipients, including lawyers, if the beneficiaries provided contact information for US citizens. You are addressing these situations case by case.
Online chat groups reflect fear and confusion, which, according to critics, is the planned effect of the administration. Brenner said three clients who received the notices decided to return to El Salvador after they were told to leave.
“The fact that we do not know how many people receive this notice is part of the problem. We are receiving reports from lawyers and people who do not know what to do with the notice,” said Hillary Li, a lawyer from the Justice Action Center, a defense group.
President Donald Trump CBP suspended one for newcomers Their first day in office, but those who were already in the United States believed that they could remain at least until their two -year permits expired. The cancellation notices they received ended that temporary stability sensation. “It’s time for you to leave the United States,” the letters began.
“It’s really confusing,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of Defense of refugees in Human Rights First. “Imagine how the people who entered through this process feel when they listen through their different chats, rumors or screenshots that some friends have received notice and others do not.”
Lawyers say that some CBP beneficiaries may still be within a one -year window to file an asylum claim or look for another relief.
Notices have been sent to others whose elimination orders are on hold under other forms of temporary protection. A federal judge in Massachusetts Deportations stopped temporarily For more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who arrived since the end of 2022 after submitting an application in line with a financial sponsor and flying to an American airport at its own cost.
Maria, a 48 -year -old Nicaraguan woman who cheered Trump’s elections and arrived through that way, said the warning told her that she left “a bomb. He paralyzed me.”
María, who asked to be appointed only by her second name for fear of being arrested and deported, said in a Florida telephone interview that she would continue to clean houses to keep herself and request asylum.
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Salomon reported from Miami. Associated Press Rebecca Santana writers in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
