ILAP Community Update: April 11
April 11, 2025
Dear Community,
This past week, ILAP was honored to join our partners at Preble Street's 50th anniversary event, Compassion Starts Here. Welcome to everyone who signed up for ILAP's email list at the event and is receiving our Community Update for the first time!
As we shared at the event, the ground has shifted tremendously for immigrant communities in the past months as the Trump administration has come to power and begun to implement its extraordinarily cruel mass immigration enforcement, detention, and deportation agenda.
Every day at ILAP, we are learning about the devastating impacts these actions are having on people’s lives, families, communities, and Maine as a whole. And at the same time, we are witnessing immigrant communities respond with unparalleled strength, determination, resourcefulness, resilience, and courage.
Everyone deserves the opportunity to live in peace, safety, and security, to be with their families, to reach for their goals and contribute to the world around them. We don’t need to be experts in immigration law or policy to be loud and clear advocates for our communities.
CALLS TO ACTION
As ILAP's Policy Director Lisa Parisio shared: "If we are willing to take action, it means that hope exists inside us." Here are two ways you can take action and fuel your hope this week:
Speak out against mass immigration enforcement
During this week's event, ILAP encouraged people to write postcards and call their Maine state representatives and members of Congress to take action against mass immigration enforcement.
You can keep the momentum going by sharing this message with your legislators:
"My name is ____, and I am a resident of ____. I am calling/writing today to express my deep opposition to mass immigration enforcement and deportation. As my representative, I call on you to consistently vote to protect immigrant communities, including by opposing mass immigration enforcement and deportation, and rejecting proposals that erode humanitarian immigration pathways and due process. Maine is home for ALL!"
2. Learn how to be an effective advocate
Preble Street compiled resources to help everyone put compassion into action. Check out ways you can support local organizations and take action here.
ILAP is also proud to bring you our *NEW* Take Action Resources page with information to help you become a powerful advocate for immigrant justice! Find contact information for your elected officials, tips on talking about immigration, resources for writing op-eds, and more at
ilapmaine.org/take-action.
Immigration Law & Policy Updates
ILAP is committed to helping our community make sense of immigration news and its impact. We share immigration law and policy developments every Friday through our Community Update emails and on social media.
Below is a summary of some key developments from the past week, as of April 11, 2025.
PLEASE NOTE: All updates are subject to rapid change.
Immigration Announcement:
Administration revokes parole for some of the nearly one million people who were allowed into the U.S. to apply for asylum under previous administration
What It Means:
The previous administration launched a cellphone app for people arriving at the U.S. border to request an appointment primarily to apply for asylum. Through this process, nearly one million people were given permission (known as parole) to enter the U.S. and work while pursuing their asylum cases.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent out individual notices to some of the people paroled in through this program, stating it is terminating their parole status immediately and instructing them to leave the United States.
However, people who are in the immigration court system or have affirmatively applied for asylum or another immigration protection have the right to have a decision on their case before being required to leave the country. Even if people have not applied for asylum yet, those who fear persecution have a right to assert an asylum claim.
This has led to confusion about exactly what this announcement means. It may lead to people who have a right to finish their immigration case losing their existing work permits that were granted through their parole. This would result in them not being able to support themselves and their families while their cases process and would also have costs for the businesses employing them.
While more information is needed to understand the impact of this announcement, it is clear that intimidating people into self-deporting is one of the goals.
ILAP is here to help. ILAP urges impacted people in Maine to contact us for an appointment here: www.ilapmaine.org/request.
As always, noncitizens can learn about their rights on ILAP's Know Your Rights page.
Noncitizen students are having their visas or status revoked connected to exercising free speech rights
At least hundreds of noncitizen students have had their visas or status revoked in the administration’s crackdown on free speech. Many of the cases are reported to involve student activism related to human rights in Palestine. Inside Higher Ed is tracking student visa or status revocation cases.
These visa or status revocations have been challenged in the courts and the situation is quickly developing.
Here in New England, the ACLU of New Hampshire was able to secure a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, temporarily preventing the administration from revoking a visa for a Dartmouth student.
ILAP recommends following the Presidents’ Alliance on High Education and Immigration for updates and resources.
ILAP is here to help. Impacted students in Maine are welcome to contact ILAP to be connected to resources: www.ilapmaine.org/request.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sign agreement for the IRS to share information about some undocumented taxpayers for DHS to use for enforcement
Undocumented immigrants contribute billions in taxpayer dollars to the U.S. annually, despite not being eligible for the programs their taxpayer dollars help fund. In 2023, U.S. households led by undocumented immigrants contributed nearly $90 billion in federal and state taxes.
This week, the IRS signed an agreement with DHS to share information about some undocumented taxpayers for purposes of immigration enforcement. Reports show that this information sharing includes people with “final orders of removal or are under criminal investigation - including for the crime of failing to leave the country after 90 days.”
Impacts of this decision will include people being at risk of deportation for paying their taxes, people not paying their taxes out of fear, and a loss of tax revenue for country.
Supreme Court permits Trump administration to continue to use war time powers to deport people, but due process is required
As previously reported, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport people from Venezuela that it is alleging are part of a gang without due process. President Trump invoked the Act on unprecedented grounds, saying that he could use the president’s war powers to deport people based on alleged gang affiliation.
A lawsuit was immediately filed by the ACLU on behalf of deported people and a temporary restraining order was put in place against the Trump administration.
The case reached the Supreme Court on an emergency appeal, which issued a decision this week.
In its decision, the Supreme Court “granted the Trump administration’s request to lift the temporary restraining order issued in a case addressing President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, but underlined that people targeted for removal under the act are entitled to challenge their removal, including by challenging the interpretation and constitutionality of the act.” In other words, while the administration is permitted for now to use this law to deport people, it cannot do it without due process. Learn more here.
In developing situation, Trump administration has threatened to revoke visas for all South Sudanese passport holders in the U.S.
The State Department issued a press release that it is taking actions to revoke the visas of all South Sudanese passport holders in the U.S., in retaliation for South Sudan not accepting someone deported from the U.S., who is reported to be of Congolese, not South Sudanese, nationality.
Such a move – to threaten to punish all people from a country in this way for one action from their government – is unprecedented.
Since issuing the threat, the South Sudanese government has indicated it will do what the U.S. wants and accept the specific deported person.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a developing situation. The State Department has said that it will review its decision to revoke visas for people from South Sudan. This decision does not impact South Sudanese green card holders, DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, or other South Sudanese people in the U.S. who do not have a visa. Check out this resource from African Communities Together for more information.
Please contact ILAP if you have questions about how this might apply to you: www.ilapmaine.org/request.
Department of Homeland Security continues to threaten people to self deport using its cellphone application “CBP Home”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing to threaten people to self deport and share their plans with the U.S. government by using a cell phone application called “CBP Home.”
Part of the threats stated by DHS include fines and imprisonment.
DHS has previously made inaccurate broad statements that self-deporting gives people 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.” However, under current immigration laws, such outcomes are unrealistic for many people. Only a qualified immigration attorney, assessing each case individually, can provide accurate advice on a person’s legal options and potential future eligibility to return to the United States.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are considering using “CBP Home” to self deport, please speak to a qualified immigration attorney first. You can request an appointment with ILAP here: www.ilapmaine.org/request.
For previous updates from ILAP, check out the links below:
April 4, 2024: Community Update
March 28, 2024: March Golden Door
March 14, 2024: Community Update
Know Your Rights
An important step you can take now to protect yourself is to learn your rights! See ILAP’s resources here.
Stay Connected:
Follow ILAP @ilapmaine on social media for the latest updates:
Members of the Maine Bar can support ILAP’s work by donating to the Campaign for Justice, a special collaborative fundraising effort by Maine’s legal community to support legal aid.
