This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.

Sign up here!

🌤️Clouds coming in, with highs in the 40s and showers possible tonight. Sunset is at 7:12 p.m.

Today we’ll be zooming in on how changes to an app, used by people seeking asylum in the U.S. to schedule appointments, are impacting a Boston family.

Four Things to Know

Federal authorities halted $1 million allocated to the Boston Public Health Commission. Some of that money was going to community health centers, for employing workers who help patients learn about local social services. The Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, posted two grants on its website that track terminated contracts and grants. “This is meant to be a cost savings for our country … it’s the money that we invest in public health [that] actually leads to the cost savings at the end of the day,” said the commission’s executive director, Dr. Bisola Ojikutu.

Also halted: $106 million in federal grants to K-12 schools in Massachusetts. The funding was intended to address learning loss caused by COVID lockdowns, support school building upgrades and air quality improvements and help teachers with emergency licenses remain in the school system. Those grants included $47.3 million slated to go to Springfield, $15.6 million for New Bedford, $6.6 million for Fitchburg, $4.9 million for Everett and $4.6 million for Revere.

Mental health providers in Massachusetts have seen an increase in people seeking their services due to stress following November’s presidential election. There are patterns of mental distress during political upheaval throughout history, explained Christy Denckla, an associate professor of social behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “This moment in history is filled with so much uncertainty for so many people in terms of access to healthcare, social safety net programs, equity, job security, free speech and fair representation,” Denckla said. Julie, a high school teacher, said she’s been seeing a therapist to learn how to manage constant worries and dread about her students’ safety. “We are an incredibly polarized country right now, and we are totally divided. And that division, it transcends politics ... it breaks down community and it creates isolation and feelings of loneliness,” she said.

Two-generational approach: The Boston branch of an organization called the Jeremiah Program hopes to help two generations at a time by helping single mothers with college and career coaching. “We know that, systemically and historically, certain groups have been denied equal opportunity and access to college, quality K-12 education and stable housing,” said Alison Carter Marlow, executive director of Jeremiah Program’s Boston campus. “Once a mother has earned that credential, her children are that much more likely to pursue and access college themselves. That mom makes it possible for her kids; they can see all the work she’s done and what she’s overcome to earn that degree, and it becomes realistic and obtainable for the children.”

The end of the CBP One app leaves families divided

The Trump administration is dramatically changing or eliminating paths immigrants have used to legally live and work in the U.S. One example: The CBP One app. For the last two years, almost one million people used the app to schedule appointments with Customs and Border Patrol agents on America’s southern border.

It was just the first step in the immigration process: Migrants often had to wait in Mexico for months before their appointments. Then the people who were vetted and allowed to enter the U.S. would usually begin the lengthy legal process of settling, getting work permits and seeking asylum.

By requiring appointments, the Biden administration limited the number of people able to enter the country. Officials from the prior administration said it also allowed for better vetting.

But recently, people with the app on their phones have noticed an automatic update has renamed it CBP Home and marketed it as a self-deportation app.

“The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said. “If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them and they will never return.”

Guerlande Jules Fils fled Haiti two years ago and settled in Boston. She was able to bring her young son, but not her husband.

“It was a bad situation with the gang members,” she said. “They kill people. My husband decided I should leave and save the baby, and he could come later.”

Her husband planned to follow in their footsteps and made it all the way to Mexico, where he waited three months for his appointment with CBP agents. Then the Trump administration discontinued the CBP One app and eliminated his path to joining his family.

“It’s hard. But for my baby and for my husband, I have to fight to stay positive,” Jules Fils said through an interpreter.

From Tapachula, Mexico, her husband said he was shocked but feels he has to hold onto hope. Communicating through Whatsapp, Wilner Pierre Charles told GBH News he was shocked by the CBP One cancellation.

“I don’t know exactly how my family is living. I know it’s very hard for my wife to do everything by herself. I am really suffering from that problem, from that situation,” he said. “I really want to come to find my family.”

Read Sarah Betancourt’s full reporting here.