When immigration attorney Hubert Montoya was sent an email by the US Department of Homeland Security telling him to leave the country or risk being deported, he says his first reaction was to laugh.
“I just thought it was absurd,” the US citizen based in Austin, Texas said.
But as the Trump administration continues to dismantle the immigration polices of its predecessors, more and more people are getting caught up in the mass deportation drive.
US Customs and Border Protection is now quietly revoking two-year permits granted in the Biden-era of people who used an online appointment app at US border crossings with Mexico called CBP One. Starting in January 2023, this process has seen more than 900,000 people enter the country.
The cancellation of CBP One permits has so far lacked the attention or formality of President Donald Trump’s move to cancel Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people whose homelands were previously deemed unsafe for return. This also extends to humanitarian parole for others from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who came with financial sponsors.
Those moves came with official notices in the Federal Register and press releases. Judges halted them from taking effect after advocacy groups sued.
CBP One cancellation notices began landing in inboxes in late March without warning, some telling recipients to leave immediately and others giving them seven days. Targets included U.S. citizens.
Timothy J. Brenner, a Connecticut-born lawyer in Houston, was told April 11 to leave the US. He said: “I became concerned that the administration has a list of immigration attorneys or a database that they’re trying to target to harass.”
CBP confirmed in a statement that it issued notices terminating temporary legal status under CBP One. It did not say how many, just that they weren't sent to all beneficiaries, which totalled 936,000 at the end of December.
CBP said notices may have been sent to unintended recipients, including attorneys, if beneficiaries provided contact information for US citizens. It is addressing those situations case-by-case.
Online chat groups reflect fear and confusion, which, according to critics, is the administration's intended effect. Brenner said three clients who received the notices chose to return to El Salvador after being told to leave.
“The fact that we don’t know how many people got this notice is part of the problem. We’re getting reports from attorneys and folks who don’t know what to make of the notice,” said Hillary Li, counsel for the Justice Action Center, an advocacy group.
President Trump suspended CBP One for new arrivals his first day in office but those already in the U.S. believed they could stay at least until their two-year permits expired. The cancellation notices that some received ended that sense of temporary stability. “It is time for you to leave the United States,” the letters began.
“It's really confusing,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director for refugee advocacy at Human Rights First. “Imagine how people who entered through that process feel when they're hearing through their different community chats, rumors or screenshots that some friends have received notice and others didn't.”
Attorneys say some CBP One beneficiaries may still be within a one-year window to file an asylum claim or seek other relief.
Notices have been sent to others whose removal orders are on hold under other forms of temporary protection. A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily halted deportations for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came since late 2022 after applying online with a financial sponsor and flying to a U.S. airport at their own expense.
Maria, a 48-year-old Nicaraguan woman who cheered Trump's election and arrived via that path, said the notice telling her to leave landed like “a bomb. It paralyzed me.”
Maria, who asked to be named only by her middle name for fear of being detained and deported, said in a telephone interview from Florida that she would continue cleaning houses to support herself and file for asylum.
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