A Massachusetts immigration attorney was taken aback when she was told by President Donald Trump's administration to leave the country within seven days.
The instructions, received via an email on April 11, raised questions about internal communication errors at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Nicole Micheroni, 40, was born in Newton and grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts. As an immigration lawyer, she's no stranger to complex bureaucratic processes. But she was surprised to find herself on the receiving end of a deportation notice.
“At first I thought it was for a client, but I looked really closely and the only name on the email was mine. So it said my parole status had been terminated and I should leave the country within seven days,” Ms Micheroni was quoted as saying by NBC News.
She said the language in the email was “very threatening.”
“And it looks kind of like a sketchy spam email. It doesn't look like an official government notice, but it is,” Micheroni said.
As a practising immigration attorney, Ms Micheroni's name and contact details frequently appear on forms submitted to immigration authorities. It appears that this may be the source of the confusion.
In response to the incident, a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security told NBC10 Boston said that some emails might have been sent to the wrong people by mistake.
“CBP used the known email addresses of the alien to send notifications. If a non-personal email as an American citizen contact-was provided by the alien, notices may have been sent to unintended recipients,” the statement read.
The agency added it was “monitoring communications and will address any issues on a case-by-case basis.”
Ms Micheroni, though, remains troubled by the implications. She said, “I think it's really scary this is going on. I think it says they're not being careful.”
She does not plan to follow up with Homeland Security directly and is treating the incident as a misstep rather than a personal threat, NBC reported. Nevertheless, she suspects there's more at play. For now, she hopes it ends with this errant email.
