Migrants in Ohio, Michigan and elsewhere scramble as Trump changes the rules
Thousands of migrants to Ohio and and other states found themselves in a dangerous state of limbo this month as their permission to be here was suddenly revoked. Court challenges are being raised, but some are planning to return to their hazardous homelands, advocates said.
Since early 2023, about 900,000 came to the United States in the way that many Americans say they want: They followed the rules and they got in line. Then the Trump administration abruptly changed those rules.
Amid heavy numbers of border crossings, the Biden administration in January 2023 launched the CBP One app. It allowed people seeking asylum to register outside the country, wait to be admitted, receive work permits and then wait some more while their asylum claims were heard.
But the Department of Homeland Security last week notified many CBP One users that they had to leave the country “immediately,” but it didn’t specify how many received such notices. Many have been told they need be gone by April 24.
The administration stopped taking new registrations through the app as soon as Trump took office in January.
The administration is also trying to revoke the temporary protected status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from 17 troubled countries. And on Thursday, the New York Times reported that it was trying to take Social Security numbers away from migrants with legal status. The goal is to get them to “self deport” by denying access to basic services such as bank accounts and credit cards, the paper reported.
The moves are said to be part of a flood-the-zone strategy that has immigrant advocates scrambling.
Fleeing oppression
Christy Staats, an Ohio-based organizer with the National Immigration Forum, estimated that thousands in the Buckeye State are affected by the CBP One revocation in all regions — including Amish country. She said a Nicaraguan family living in a rural part of Ohio called her in a panic.
Staats didn’t name the family or say where they lived for fear of arousing the government’s attention. She said that as of Thursday, the family was planning to go back to Nicaragua.
“They bought a car here,” Staats said. “They spent all this time waiting and not working until they got their work permit. They’re working. They’re paying taxes and all of the sudden their legal status gets ripped out from under them. It’s been really, really unsettling.”
That’s especially true given the reason the family sought asylum in the first place.
The longstanding socialist government of Nicaragua has become increasingly oppressive in recent years. The U.S. State Department reported that in 2023 it engaged in “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by prison guards and parapolice; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detentions; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners… “
It added that the Ortega government imposed “serious restrictions on free expression and media freedom, including threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests and prosecution of journalists, and censorship; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association…”
That could be a particular problem for the family Staats has been working with.
“They played by the rules,” she said. “They got in line. Nicaragua has been in a very concerning state for quite a few years with their communist dictator restricting more and more freedoms. They had a couple of run-ins related to free speech. The government was watching them. The husband was pulled in by the police. They were very concerned that something more significant would happen. They’ve been jailing journalists like crazy for quite a few years.”
Confusing limbo
Adding to the uncertainty, the Associated Press reported late Thursday that a federal judge in Boston would at least temporarily stop Trump from ending the humanitarian paroles of people from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, people from other countries who received humanitarian parole through the CBP One app were getting vague and threatening letters from the government.
Erin Piper of Detroit has been working for years to get the extended family of friends she made through her children out of Afghanistan. On Friday morning, she said some received letters the previous evening that said “Do not attempt to stay in the United States — the federal government will find you.”
If the goal was to frighten them, it succeeded, Piper said.
“My friends are all having difficulty reaching their attorneys (who are likely being flooded with calls) to understand if their asylum cases are enough to keep them here without fear of deportation, but they are all incredibly scared,” Piper said in a text message. “The letter they received has only raised more questions.”
In an interview on Thursday, Piper said that the 21 Afghans she’s helped have known too much fear as it is.
In 2020, the United States pulled troops out of Afghanistan, leaving the fanatical Taliban in charge. The group is well known for its extreme repression of women and girls, ethnic minorities and anybody who worked with the American armed forces during their 20-year presence in the country.
“Profoundly grateful”
Piper’s kids befriended those of an Afghan family who had immigrated to Michigan before the withdrawal. When Kabul fell, she learned that their extended family was in extreme distress back in Afghanistan.
For two years she worked with a non-governmental organization to get them visas, first to Pakistan, and then to Brazil.
“It was a really huge effort, logistically and financially,” Piper said. “I was supported a lot by my own local church and a Christian organization. I worked with a military veteran who helped us do a very successful fundraiser with a corporate sponsor. It was definitely a herculean effort logistically, financially and in many other ways.”
It was hard to find work in Brazil, so the extended family made its way through the deadly Darien Gap and made the rest of the harrowing trip through Central America and Mexico. Once there, they got in line using the CBP One app.
After getting to Michigan and getting work permits, the adults took unfilled factory jobs, and the kids went to school and learned English. A teenage girl is going to high school — something the Taliban would never allow.
“They’re barely scraping by,” Piper said. “But they’re here and thrilled to be here without the fear of persecution because of their ethnicity or their support for democracy. The women have equal rights here. Some have been able to work and support their families. That’s been really exciting for them. Their lives are far from easy, but they’re profoundly grateful to be here.”
Staats of the National Immigration Forum said there’s something deeply unjust in suddenly telling people who came legally that they have to go back to places they fled.
“A lot of Americans want people to play by the rules,” she said. “I’ve heard 10,000 times, ‘I want people to get in line. They should have to wait for their turn.’ They did. They waited in line until they got their turn. This program was telling asylum seekers not to just come to the border. So they waited — some for a long time. They had a credible-fear interview when they came in at their allocated time.”
“And now their status is being revoked very suddenly,” Staats said. “Anybody who wants an immigration system where we know who people are when they come in should be very concerned.”
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