The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
Over the weekend I received a WhatsApp message from Mr. A.
Mr. A and I have been in touch since he was trying to get out of Afghanistan after the US retreat in 2021. After finally fleeing with his young family and arriving in Mexico, he finally offered to use the CBP One app to request asylum at a US port of entry. He quickly won his asylum case and is currently working in it while waiting to qualify for a green card.
Except for what he was worried about, it was all about to crash this weekend. He received a letter from the US government that began, “It’s time for you to leave the US.”
Countless letters like this have been sent to people over the past few weeks, announcing that the government has ended its humanitarian parole. Deprives you of your legal permission to live and work in the United States. Many people in Mr. A’s situation may not realize that they don’t need to follow a sentence like “It’s time for you to leave.” Even those who are directly affected by losing parole are at risk of hurting their own cases if they do what the Trump administration letter demands.
Why are these letters sent so widely by chance? The answer may have something to do with Elon Musk’s “government efficiency” (not the official federal organization). Doge is embedded to access the federal government’s system and directly access policy changes. Sending a letter of “time to leave” is a disruption on a scale rarely seen in immigration policies, and it has great consequences for those who receive it.
“Leave the US” – and hurt your immigration case
The “Leave the US” letter generally appears to be targeted at people who post appointments made on one CBP app, then entered the US and were given humanitarian parole to pursue a lawsuit in an immigration court. However, the DHS sent the same letter to Ukrainians who had been parole to the US under the Ukrainian Unity Program a few weeks ago. The government simply admits that all these letters were sent by mistake.
The letter says that the recipient’s parole is about to end and that there will be seven days to leave the country. According to the phrase buried midway through the letter, they “have obtained a legal basis.” The letter ends with the line “Please leave the United States immediately.”
Unlike Ukrainians, it is clear that the government intends to revoke paroles for CBP parolees. (In fact, some of the polyols still stuck in Mexico have signed up for the app, but have received an email telling them to leave the US as Donald Trump took office and didn’t get a reservation before halting all asylum processing at the port of entry.
Some have arrived on parole with one CBP, and already have received different immigration status, but others have lost their immigration cases and have been deported, so there is no way to know exactly how many people here have been deprived of legal permits. Those people are in the midst of losing both their work permits and paroles that grant protection from deportation.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to leave under US law. It is always important to consult a competent and reputable immigration lawyer before making decisions that could affect your case, such as leaving the country. Many parolees have pending applications due to a more permanent form of legal status. Additionally, most people appointed at ports of entry using CBP One have been placed in immigration court deportation lawsuits.
If these cases are still in progress, it is not unnecessary for them to leave. It could be aggressively bad for their case. If they left the United States without notifying the court, they ordered that they be deported in their absence at the next hearing. According to the DHS letter, people can use CBP homes to notify the government that it is a “self-report” but there is no indication that this information will be shared with immigration courts under another government department and will use a different system to track cases.
“Leave the United States” – because Doge said that?
Meanwhile, in the case of the nation, the letter went to American citizens. Immigration lawyers who were mostly sent letters to clients. In some cases, lawyers say they have never given email addresses to the agency that sent the letter, the customs and border security in the United States. Another immigration agency, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, may have given CBP contact information.
The letter sent to American citizens had received widespread attention, but made it very clear that the DHS had not paid attention. In Florida, several green cardholders — Cubans qualify for the swift path to citizenship under the Cuban adjustment laws — have received the letter.
The parole grant that put them in the US allows them to stay here now and does nothing to revoke it. In fact, the letters admit that they do not apply to them. They have “another legal basis” to be here. But you need to be careful to notice it. And that’s not exactly a common phrase, even for those who have navigated the immigration system themselves. (There is no clear reference to asylum or other types of status that could be counted as “legal basis.”)
Mr. A did not notice the phrase when he read the letter. He knew there were exiles as well as parole, but he was still worried and confused.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to reporters that in some cases the letter may have been sent incorrectly. However, a CBP spokesman told reporters that the letter was sent to people who “have no legitimate grounds left behind” — which could contradict the text of the letter itself and could further confuse recipients who were even more confused.
An error has been recognized and unauthorized, an email address shared with one agency is being used by another agency. This is part of a familiar pattern in the early months of the Trump administration, often breaking things first and asking questions later. In fact, a Politico article published last week provided an important clues as to why the letter “leave the US” is so confused.
The article reveals that some Doge-related staff, which have previously focused on eliminating “government waste” and granting access to government databases, are currently pivoting to implementing Trump’s immigration agenda. According to the article, their first project was a massive revocation of parole.
If Doge is behind these letters, it certainly explains a few things. But that doesn’t justify them.
When the Trump administration terminates the government program and backs up again, it is clearly trying to reverse its actions. But when sending letters to people with exiles or green cards that it is “time to leave,” it’s not just that they do so by mistake. It has already spread fear into communities that fear this administration. Trump has pledged a massive deportation and spent the first few months removing existing legal protections from people such as CBP One parolees. Immigrants who receive a letter telling them to “leave the US soon” should not assume that it is intended for them at some level.
Submitted below: Parole, Trump administration
