Richard Minard is executive director of Building Community in New Hampshire, a nonprofit organization based in Manchester that works statewide to help refugees and other immigrants navigate their way to safe, healthy, prosperous, and productive lives in New Hampshire.

Should we call the Department of Homeland Security a domestic terrorist organization?

At 10 a.m., Friday, April 4, my organization started getting agitated calls and emails from our Ukrainian clients. We help refugees and “humanitarian parolees” restart their lives in the United States. The Ukrainians had just opened their inboxes and found the following email from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, delivered during the night:

“Notice of Termination of Parole

It is time for you to leave the United States. You are currently here because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paroled you into the United States for a limited period. Pursuant to 8 U.S.C. §1182(d)(5)(A) and 8 C.F.R. § 212.5(e), DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole. Unless it expires sooner, your parole will terminate 7 days from the date of this notice.

If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States — unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here. Any benefits you receive in the United States connected with your parole — such as work authorization — will also terminate. You will be subject to potential criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties, and any other lawful options available to the federal government.

DHS encourages you to leave immediately on your own. You can use the CBP Home mobile app on your phone to make arrangements for your departure. If you are departing the United States via land, you should report your departure once outside the United States via that same app. If you are having trouble reporting your departure via land, visit https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/home for more information about voluntarily reporting your departure.

Again, DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”

Was the email a real message from the federal government or a cruel hoax? Our clients from across New Hampshire told us that Ukrainians in other states had received the same email. I raised the alarm with the New Hampshire State Refugee Coordinator, who works closely with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Her counterparts across the country were asking the same question and getting no response from Homeland Security.

I turned to Sen. Shaheen’s office to try to pry an answer out of the federal government. Shaheen’s staff understood the gravity of the question. They couldn’t get an answer, either. By 1 p.m., we heard that Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts was also trying to get answers from Homeland Security. Markey’s staff said they believed that the email had indeed originated from a federal office, but they could pass on no useful information.

As our email chains expanded, our Ukrainian clients waited.

Imagine getting an email at work from your local police chief saying that your children might have been among those shot at the elementary school. No further information. No phone number to call.

Or imagine being told that in 10 days you would have to take your children home to Ukraine, even if your home had been destroyed by Russian bombs or your city was occupied by Russian soldiers. Would you start packing? Would you take your children back to a war zone or look for ways to leave them here?

Ukrainians know that the administration is capable of enforcing such cruelty because they see what is happening to their Haitian neighbors. Even though the violence in Haiti is escalating, President Trump issued a “get out” decree last month to the thousands of Haitians living and working here legally with temporary protected status. Their termination order, which came well publicized and with no ambiguity, gave them 30 days. On Thursday, April 24, they have to disappear.

Since the Haitian decree, Ukrainians and Afghans in New Hampshire — all here legally — have been on edge, expecting the worst. The Ukrainian email heightened their fear.

Finally, at about 7 pm Friday evening, Ukrainians across the nation found this in their email inboxes:

“Retraction of Notice of Termination of Parole

We understand that yesterday, you may have received an email notification titled ‘Notice of Termination of Parole.’  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent this email to you in error. No action will be taken with respect to your parole as indicated in the April 3, 2025 e-mail; the terms of your parole as originally issued remain unchanged at this time.”

I find no hint of an apology or explanation in that email. Instead, the last three words are an implied threat: The Department could change its mind tomorrow.

Immigration policy is complex, but using terror as a policy tool is simply wrong.