On Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began revoking the temporary protected status of tens of thousands of immigrants, who legally entered the United States beginning in January 2023 through the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) One app. While it is unclear exactly how many have been ordered to leave the United States “immediately,” an estimated 936,000 people entered the US legally using the application.
Under the Biden administration, immigrants who arrived at Southern ports of entry into the United States were encouraged to download the CPB One app to file asylum claims and schedule appointments. While the claim was being adjudicated, immigrants were typically allowed to remain in the country for up to two years and obtain work authorization.
This program was conducted on the basis of an executive order under Biden known as parole. The Democrats and Biden never advanced legislation that would grant immigrants who entered the country in this manner permanent legal status, leaving them vulnerable to Trump’s fascistic retribution.
On his first day in office, Trump ended all appointments that had been scheduled through the CPB One app, stranding thousands of people in Mexico who had been waiting for months. Under Trump, the CPB One app has been transformed into the CPB Home app. Instead of being able to schedule appointments or file asylum claims, immigrants can now only “self-deport” using the app.
In a statement last month announcing the transformation of the app, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said it
gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.
In a fascist stunt Tuesday, Noem, with “Libs of Tik Tok” propagandist Chaya Raichik in tow, participated in a “ride along” with ICE agents as they conducted armed raids of immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona, alleged to have criminal backgrounds.
Beginning this past Sunday, immigrants who used CPB One/Home began receiving a message that read, in part:
If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States—unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here.
It continued:
Again, DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States—the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.
The Associated Press and the nonprofit organization Al Otro Lado (On the Other Side) have confirmed that immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico have begun receiving notices. As of this writing, it does not appear that immigrants from Ukraine or Afghanistan have been ordered to self-deport.
This is the second time in as many months that Trump’s DHS has terminated Biden era parole programs, leaving hundreds of thousands of people subject to being disappeared by the immigration Gestapo. Last month, DHS announced it was revoking temporary parole status (TPS) for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, effective April 24. Trump is also seeking to revoke legal status for some 500,000 Haitians whose TPS protections are set to expire this August.
In furtherance of Trump’s mass deportation operation, which has been met with silence and indifference by the Democratic Party and its “independent” sheepdog, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had agreed to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in facilitating mass deportations.
In an unprecedented action that underscores the lawlessness and criminality of the entire US government, the IRS, according to a court filing reviewed by the New York Times, agreed to provide the agency currently abducting thousands of residents and students “information about people who have been ordered to leave the United States—or whom they are otherwise investigating.”
“It’s unprecedented,” Nina Olson, the executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and former IRS official, told the Times.
In anticipation of imprisoning hundreds of thousands of people in concentration camps, last week ICE submitted requests for private contractors to supply $45 billion worth of detention facilities, security guards, transportation and other services. A review of the contract requests by the Times found that if all the ICE requests were funded, it would “represent more than a sixfold increase in spending to detain immigrants.”
Under the new contracts, according to the Times:
facilities ... will not have to meet the standards for services and detainee care that ICE has typically set for large detention providers.
The article continues:
Instead, they can operate under the less rigorous standards the agency uses for contracts with local jails and prisons. These facilities typically do not include comprehensive medical care, like access to mental health services, nor do they offer access to information about immigrants’ legal rights.
Conditions inside the mostly privately run migrant prisons were already deadly before Trump returned to the White House. At least 26 people died in ICE custody during the Biden administration, including 12 during his last year in office. In 2022, Customs and Border Protection reported that 52 people died in its custody.
In its last budget, Congress provided funding for some 41,500 beds. As of last month, nearly 48,000 people were languishing in immigration detention facilities.
One of the thousands currently imprisoned in ICE concentration camps is Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident and Columbia University graduate student. He is facing deportation and remains imprisoned in Jena, Louisiana, after he was abducted from his New York City apartment on March 8. Khalil has not committed a crime and was targeted by the Trump administration solely for his role as a student negotiator during last year’s international protests against the genocide in Gaza.
On Tuesday, federal immigration Judge Jamee Comans ordered the government to provide evidence by Wednesday 5:00 p.m. as to why Khalil should be deported. Comans said that if the DHS did not provide sufficient evidence, “I’m going to terminate this case on Friday,” i.e., order his release.
Khalil is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of students who are facing deportation under the Trump administration. Inside Higher Ed found that as of April 8, “70-plus colleges and universities” had identified “at least 300 international students and recent graduates who had their status changed by the State Department.”
Inside Higher Ed reported:
Most college officials say they’re unsure of why foreign-born students had their legal residency status terminated or have yet to receive formal motivation of the changes. A majority have yet to receive any communication from immigration authorities.
The immigration Gestapo are not only targeting immigrants and international students. On Monday, the Detroit Free Press reported that Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was interrogated by federal agents upon returning from a spring break vacation with his family in the Dominican Republic. Makled, an American citizen, is currently representing a University of Michigan student arrested during the anti-genocide protests last year.
Makled told the newspaper that after the agents detained him, they demanded that he give up his phone and answer questions about his clients. He recalled telling them:
I know you can take my phone. I’m not going to give you my phone, however ... 90% of my work is on my phone. You’re not getting unfettered access to (it).
According to Makled, after his family arrived at the airport and were making their way through the passport screening, his photo was taken. He then heard an agent ask for the “TTRT folks,” which Makled discovered stood for “Tactical Terrorism Response Team.”
Makled recalled agents leading him to an interrogation room, where they said, “We know you’re a lawyer. We know you take on big cases.” They then requested access to all of Makled’s texts, which he refused. Instead, Makled allowed the agents to view his contact list, with Makled confirming only that they were his clients.
Makled told the newspaper:
This current administration is doing something that no administration has done—they are attacking attorneys.
He added:
This is a different type of threat to the rule of law that I see. They are now challenging the judiciary, or lawyers, they’re putting pressure (on them) to dissuade attorneys from taking on issues that are against the government’s issues. We have an obligation as lawyers to stand up to this stuff.