McAllen, Texas (AP) – Hubert Montoya laughed when the American Department of Internal Security sent an email to say that it should leave the country immediately or risk the consequences of being expelled. He is an American citizen.
“I thought it was absurd,” said Austin’s lawyer in Texas, the immigration lawyer.
It was an apparent problem in dismantling the Trump administration of another Biden era policy that allowed people to live and work temporarily in the country. Customs and the protection of American borders quietly reveal the two -year permits to people who Used an online appointment application In the United States, Mexico called CBP One, which brought more than 900,000 people from January 2023.
The revocation of CBP One permits has lacked fanfare and formality to cancel the temporary status protected for hundreds of thousands whose homeland was previously deemed dangerous for the return and conditional humanitarian release for others from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who came with financial sponsors. These measures came with official opinions in the federal register and the press releases. Judges interrupted them to take effect After the plea groups continued.
The CBP One One cancellation notices began to land in the reception boxes at the end of March without warning, some told the recipients to leave immediately and others giving them seven days. Targets included American citizens.
Timothy J. Brenner, a lawyer born in Connecticut in Houston, was told on April 11 to leave the United States: “I became concerned that the administration has a list of immigration lawyer or a database that they are trying to aim to harass,” he said.
CBP confirmed in a press release that he published opinions interrupting temporary legal status under the CBP. It didn’t say how much, just that they were not sent to all the beneficiaries, who totaled 936,000 at the end of December.
The CBP said that opinions may have been sent to unintentional beneficiaries, including lawyers, if the beneficiaries provided contact details for American citizens. He addresses these situations on a case -by -case basis.
Online discussion groups reflect fear and confusion, which, according to criticism, is the planned effect of the administration. Brenner said three customers who had received the opinions chose to return to Salvador after being invited to leave.
“The fact that we do not know how many people have obtained this opinion is part of the problem. We obtain reports from lawyers and people who do not know what to do with the opinion,” said Hillary Li, lawyer for Action Center, a advocacy group.
President Donald Trump Suspended CBP for newcomers His first day in power, but those already in the United States thought that they could remain at least until their permit of two years expired. The cancellation notices that some have received ended this feeling of temporary stability. “It’s time for you to leave the United States,” said the letters.
“It’s really confusing,” said Robyn Barnard, principal director of the defense of refugees at Human Rights First. “Imagine how people who have entered this process feel when they hear their various community cats, rumors or screenshots that some friends have received an opinion and others.”
Lawyers say that some CBP beneficiaries can always be in a one -year window to submit an asylum complaint or request another repair.
Opinions have been sent to other people whose referral orders are pending in other forms of temporary protection. A federal judge in the Massachusetts Temporarily interrupted deportations For more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaragues and Venezuelans who have come since 2022 after applying online with a financial sponsor and flying to an American airport at their expense.
Maria, a 48 -year -old Nicaraguan woman who applauded Trump’s elections and arrived via this path, said the opinion telling her to leave like “a bomb. It paralyzed me.”
Maria, who asked to be appointed only by her second first name for fear of being held and expelled, said in a telephone interview in Florida that she would continue to clean the houses to support and file an asylum application.
___
Solomon reported to Miami. The writers of the Associated Press Rebecca Santana in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
