Migrants in City Shelters Make Tough Decisions as Feds Warn: ‘It Is Time for You to Leave’

by Gwynne Hogan

This article was originally published on April 17 at 2:02 p.m. EDT by THE CITY

A Colombian mother of a ninth grader had planned to move her family out of their Brooklyn migrant shelter at the end of the school year. 

That was before she got a menacing email from Customs and Border Patrol last week telling her she had seven days to leave the country. 

“A fear enters you,” she said in Spanish. “I’m leaving once and for all with my family, before it gets any uglier here.”

She and her family packed their bags and left Wednesday, intending to make their way to Canada to reunite with family members there.

The Colombian mother, whose name THE CITY is withholding, was among countless shelter residents who received an automated email last week from the Trump administration that went out to tens of thousands of people across the country, many of whom had come legally only to have the rules changed by the new presidential administration. 

The Colombian mother, like many recipients of the notice, had come to the country after making an appointment to do so through the CBP One app the Biden administration used to allow migrants to schedule appointments with border agents in advance and enter the country with humanitarian parole, which sped up access to working permits for nearly a million people who entered using it. 

But on President Donald Trump’s first day in office in January, he canceled all existing appointments made on the app, which was swiftly relaunched as CBP Home. The updated app allows people to notify the government when they intend to leave the country. 

Last week’s email warned people who had been granted parole that it had been terminated, and that “it is time for you to leave the United States.” The message, which came from a no-reply address and wasn’t addressed to anyone specifically, was also sent to a number of immigration lawyers who are U.S. citizens. 

After instructing recipients to leave the country within a week, the email went on to warn that otherwise “you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions — unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here.”

It came as the Trump administration is racing to end a number of legal immigration pathways like humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status, in which the government has let people from countries undergoing a natural disaster or war stay in the country. 

Some of these programs, like TPS for people from Haiti, which has been ravaged by earthquakes, civil unrest, gang violence, and even a cholera outbreak, go back more than a decade.

‘Confusion and Panic’

The city’s Department of Social Services sent out notices to shelter providers warning them that some residents may have gotten the seven-day warning, and directing them to tell people to call the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Legal Support hotline. 

“New York City is dedicated to ensuring everyone living here — regardless of their immigration status — knows their rights,” said Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams. “If they do not have an attorney, they should contact the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to learn more about the free legal services we can connect them to.”

The number of people in the city’s migrant shelters has been on the decline for months, since Biden implemented stricter border policies last summer and the city began putting time limits on shelter stays for migrants.

Joshua Goldfein, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society, who helps serve as a watchdog for city shelter residents on behalf of Coalition for the Homeless, said he’d fielded a barrage of concerned texts and calls from people who got the notice. 

“It did what they wanted to do. It created a massive amount of confusion and panic,” he said. Goldfein also urged people to connect with a legal expert because each person’s situation could vary depending on what other forms of immigration relief they’re eligible for. 

‘With This Administration, Nothing Is Certain’

Among those who received the email notice last week was another Brooklyn shelter resident, a father of three from Venezuela who asked that his name not be used, fearing retaliation from immigration enforcement. The 47-year-old told THE CITY he had worked with an opposition party against President Nicolás Maduro and fled last year after receiving death threats. 

He’d also been threatened several years ago, he said, after which his 19-year-old son was kidnapped. He never saw his son again. 

Late last week, he said, he’d heard other shelter residents, some in tears, discussing the warning to leave the country. He’d returned to the family’s room to check his own email and saw he’d been warned too. 

“Of course, I was worried,” he said. The 47-year-old quickly called an immigration lawyer he had hired to help the family submit asylum claims. The attorney tried to calm him down, saying the family should be protected because they also had a pending asylum claim. 

“I’m still a little nervous,” he said in Spanish. “Here with this administration, this president, nothing is certain.”

Outside the Row Hotel, another location being used as a shelter for newly arriving migrants, another young couple said they too had gotten the note from Customs and Border Control, as many residents at the hotel had. There was uneasy and confused chatter among residents in the hours after it went out, the couple said. 

Mari, 34, who declined to give her last name fearing immigration consequences, said the family fled Venezuela shortly after their 16-year-old daughter was shot in the eye, partially blinding her. 

The journey to the U.S. border took them several months with stops in Guatemala and Mexico City, but they managed to secure a parole appointment with the CBP One App on January 19, a day before Trump was inaugurated and effectively shut it down. The family made their way to New York City shortly thereafter.

“We felt so happy because God gave us an opportunity to enter,” she said. 

Her three children were settling into life in New York City and were enjoying their time in school. In Venezuela, she added, they missed months of school because teachers were so poorly compensated they rarely showed up. This week, she added, her oldest daughter had an appointment with a doctor about facial reconstruction and a prosthetic eye from her bullet wound. 

“We love that there are laws in this city and this country,” she said.

Mari, who also received the threatening email, said she’s rushing to submit her asylum application and was not considering self-deporting. 

“We don’t want to be a burden on the country,” she said. “We came to work.”

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