PASTOR ON THE PLANE
PASTOR ON THE PLANE
ICE GOT HIM AFTER A BROKEN TAILLIGHT AND HIS GREEN CARD PAPERWORK JUST GOT APPROVED
Good afternoon Bahama Drama.
This one sting.
A Haitian pastor with a U.S. citizen wife, a two-year-old son, and a nine-year-old stepdaughter is sitting in ICE custody in Louisiana tonight, waiting on a charter flight back to Haiti, the same Haiti where gangs just hit a rural town and even government officials getting snatched.
His name is Pastor Molis Augustave.
He was delivering food for DoorDash in York, Pennsylvania. Police pull him for a broken taillight. Days later, ICE have him. And then, listen to this, his wife Omara Boniface Nunez get an email from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saying the Form I-130 she filed for him as her husband was approved.
Approved.
But ICE still saying he got a final order of removal and he going on that Thursday flight out of Alexandria, Louisiana.
That is the drama.
HOW A PASTOR END UP IN A VAN
Augustave come to the States in 2016. Apply for asylum. Denied in 2018. Appeal lost in 2021. Final deportation order.
Then TPS cover him. Temporary Protected Status. That paper keep a whole heap of Haitians from getting sent back while Haiti stay in chaos.
He work. He organize with We Are CASA. He join other clergy this year on a legal brief when the Supreme Court was looking at whether the administration could kill TPS for more than 300,000 people.
July come. Court side with the administration. TPS gone. He fall back on that old removal order.
So the man take a DoorDash job to keep food on the table. Valid driver’s license. Wife already filed the family petition. Green card application, I-485, sitting there too.
Broken taillight.
Wife say she try to see him after he call from an ICE office. They hand his things through the door. That was it.
ICE spokesman say he was violating U.S. immigration laws and being unlawfully present. Final order. Stay in custody pending removal. And they advertise the CBP Home app, up to $3,000 and a free flight if you self-deport.
Nunez say she heartbroken. Haiti not stable. Kidnappings. Gangs. Tuesday attack on Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye got people panicking.
I have seen Molis help other people, including people with family members in detention. But I did not imagine it would happen to me.
They meet at work. Married March 2023. Son Isaac is 2. He stepfather to Sofia, 9.
Sofia understand what happening and still hoping Daddy coming home. Isaac just want his father.
THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE ONE MAN
This not just one pastor.
At least three Haitian pastors catch high-profile ICE hits after arrests.
Since July, 410 people deported to Haiti, including seven children, some born in the U.S. At least 113 used to have TPS. Some gone mere days after they get detained.
ICE used to send monthly flights. Now weekly.
Approval of an I-130 don’t give you a green card by itself. Everybody know that. But together with the I-485, that used to be the path that keep most people from getting rushed on a plane. Advocates say the clock now get sped up on purpose.
Wednesday, We Are CASA and Haitian Bridge Alliance hold a press conference.
Ama Frimpong, We Are CASA, say they are asking for one thing: time. Time for Pastor Molis’s green card application to be adjudicated. Time for due process to play out in a standard time frame, not an expedited, punitive one designed to rush him onto a plane before anyone can review his case.
She call him what happen when you strip hundreds of thousands of TPS and then detain and deport them no matter how long they been here, what they built, or that this is home.
INSIDE THE CENTER
Nunez talk to him every day.
He say food run out sometimes. People in there for endless months. Women and children held nearby.
And still, this the part that sound like a pastor for true, every call he asking if they can help somebody else. He start Bible study with the other detainees.
Even now, he is still asking me to help those who are outside and looking for assistance.
Nunez is first-generation American. She say this give her a new eyes: plenty families going through the same thing.
BAHAMA DRAMA TAKE
A man lose humanitarian protection. File the family papers. Get the I-130 approved after they lock him up on a traffic stop. Wife and two children on this side. Haiti on fire on that side. Flight leaving Thursday.
You could argue the law is the law. Final order is a final order. TPS was temporary. I-130 ain’t a green card.
You could also argue a broken taillight and a pending family case shouldn’t put a preacher on a weekly deportation plane while his toddler asking for Daddy.
Both things sitting in the same story.
What you think, due process, or the plane already booked?
Stay safe. Look out for your people. And if you praying, pray for Isaac and Sofia tonight.
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