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These NY immigrants thought their deportation fights had ended. They were wrong.
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Aug 18, 2025
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By
Arya Sundaram
Published Aug 18, 2025
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When Mireya, an immigrant from Venezuela, learned in May that the Trump administration was restarting her long-paused immigration court case, she said tremors of anxiety rippled through her body.
Mireya’s case had been “administratively closed” years ago, meaning the federal government was no longer actively trying to deport her. She had been granted permission to stay in the United States under a designation known as Temporary Protected Status, a reprieve awarded to hundreds of thousands fearful of returning to Venezuela because of violence there.
But now a new hearing was set for December — the first step toward her possible removal from the country.
“You feel that in whatever moment they can take you,” the 49-year-old Queens resident, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of jeopardizing her immigration case, said in Spanish. When she received the news, she thought, “‘Wow. The moment has come.”
Mireya’s case is one of thousands of paused immigration cases the Trump administration has moved to reopen nationwide. In practice, that means a government attorney asks a federal immigration court to “recalendar,” or restart, an immigration case that previously had been deemed not a priority for enforcement.
Typically, such cases were indefinitely paused because the person was pursuing immigration relief outside the court system, or because the federal government decided they were not a deportation priority — perhaps because the person has no criminal history, or has strong family ties in the United States, or for other reasons, according to immigration attorneys.
Under the Trump administration, the federal government has submitted nearly 49,000 motions to recalendar closed cases, according to a Gothamist analysis of immigration court data. That’s 1.5 times greater than the number of such motions under the first Trump administration, and nearly six times the number under President Joe Biden’s administration.
In New York City, the Trump administration has submitted 6,103 motions to recalendar administratively closed cases, according to the Gothamist analysis.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the practice of restarting the paused cases.
“Biden chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, into the country and used prosecutorial discretion to indefinitely delay their cases and allow them to illegally remain in the United States,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Now, President [Donald] Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi] Noem are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens' removal proceedings and ensuring their cases are heard by a judge."
Since mid-May, the administration has submitted motions to recalendar 150 cases being handled by the local nonprofit Central American Legal Assistance, according to Director Heather Axford.
Deborah Lee, the head of the local Legal Aid Society’s immigration practice, said her organization has received motions to recalendar 60 cases.
Local immigration attorneys say no pattern has emerged for whom the Trump administration is targeting, though the Trump administration has sought to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including from Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua, among others, who were previously authorized to remain in the country, contending the designation has been abused by prior administrations.
“They’re using a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel,” said New York City-based immigration attorney Robert Tsigler. “They’re just going to start reopening all these cases.”
Some of the people affected have been living in the United States for years.
One affected woman has been in the country for over a decade, faced serious kidney problems, and had her case administratively closed when she was a teenager, according to Axford. The Trump administration has motioned to reopen her case.
An octogenarian from Guatemala had her immigration case administratively closed nearly a decade ago, in 2016, because the Obama administration decided she wasn’t a deportation priority, Axford said. The Trump administration recently motioned to reopen her case, too.
Immigration attorneys have 10 days to fight off the government’s motion to recalendar an individual’s case — and in some cases, the immigration attorneys have won and the cases remain administratively closed. In other cases, a judge has ruled against them, and a new hearing is scheduled.
Some attorneys say they’ve tried to file opposing motions within the required 10 days, only to find the government’s motion hadn’t yet been filed, leaving them in limbo. Axford called the process “chaotic” and “pointless,” saying it wastes scarce court resources.
“It’s in line with what we’ve seen so far, which is not a lot of discretion or forethought from the Department of Homeland Security about how to implement something like this and what their goals are,” Axford said.
Attorneys recommend immigrants with administratively closed cases check on the status of their court case, to find out if the government has motioned to reopen their case.
Mireya, from Venezuela, wonders where she’ll go if she gets deported. She said she doesn’t have a passport, and she can’t return to her country.
Since arriving in the country seven years ago from Venezuela, Mireya built a life in New York City –– renting a two-bedroom apartment in Flushing, working as a cook at a nonprofit daycare, and sending her daughter to university in Long Island. She never assumed she was safe from deportation, but she felt she was putting down roots. Now, she feared she’d lose it all.
“What options do we have?” Mireya said. “We’re living in total uncertainty.’
Tagged
Race And Justice Unit
immigration
new york state
Arya Sundaram
Arya is a reporter covering race and justice. Got a tip? Email: [email protected] or reach Arya on Signal at 512-650-8767.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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