Home > World > World

U.S. immigrants anxious as Trump administration's deportation drive ramps up

Published: 24 Apr. 2025, 09:35

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

A migrant seeking asylum holds up the CBP One app showing his appointment was canceled after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20. [AP/YONHAP]

Immigrant communities in the United States are growing increasingly anxious as cases emerge of not only undocumented individuals but also legal residents being deported from the country under the second Donald Trump administration.

Adding to the concern, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reportedly begun revoking two-year temporary stays granted to undocumented immigrants who crossed the Mexico border during the previous Joe Biden administration.

The Trump administration has notified approximately 900,000 immigrants who had been granted temporary stay that they are now subject to deportation, according to reports from The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. The process has been plagued by confusion, including erroneous notifications sent to individuals who are not actually subject to removal.

The temporary stay program under the Biden administration was intended to manage the influx of border crossers within a formal system while limiting the total number of immigrants.

However, immediately after Trump took office in January, he scrapped the program entirely. Since late last month, authorities began sending notices of cancellation to those who had received temporary stay permits.

These notices reportedly begin with the phrase, “It is now time for you to leave the United States,” and include warnings that failure to voluntarily depart may lead to deportation.

A migrant shows the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app on his cell phone, which he said he used to apply for asylum in the U.S. and is waiting on an answer, at a migrant tent camp outside La Soledad church in Mexico City on Jan. 20, the inauguration day of U.S. President Donald Trump. [AP/YONHAP]

As of late last year, a total of 936,000 individuals had received temporary stay permits via the CBP One mobile application.

The American media has pointed out that the move to rescind the temporary permits raises several concerns, such as denying affected individuals time to pursue legal remedies and mistakenly sending notices to people who are not actually affected.

Immigration attorneys in Los Angeles, Texas, and Massachusetts told reporters that they had received the cancellation notices via email, even though they themselves are U.S. citizens and do not represent any clients covered by the notices.

“If the immigrant provided someone else’s contact information or email address, such as that of a U.S. citizen, the notice may have been inadvertently sent to the wrong recipient,” the CBP said in this regard. “We are monitoring the issue and will resolve cases individually.”

Migrants seeking asylum leave an immigration office after their scheduled meetings were canceled and they were turned away soon after U.S. President Donald Trump canceled the CBP One app on Jan. 20. [AP/YONHAP]

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a warning to its members, noting that since April 8, attorneys had begun receiving these notices even though they had no involvement with the immigrants in question.

Moreover, even among immigrants with temporary stay status, some have received the cancellation notices while others have not.

“People who entered through CBP One are hearing through community chats and word-of-mouth that some have received the notices and others have not,” said a refugee advocacy officer at Human Rights First. “It’s a very confusing situation.”

BY BAE JAE-SUNG [[email protected]]