Reporting by Mike Argento, York Daily Record / York Daily Record
On the morning of Sept. 24, after a decade living in the United States, Pastor Molis Augustave was returned to Haiti.
Augustave, who had lived in the United States since 2016 and built a life in York, was deported after he had been stopped by police for a burnt-out headlight on Sept. 4.
After West Manchester Township police stopped him for the routine violation, they handed him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who began deportation proceedings, despite Augustine having a pending application for permanent residency status.
He qualified for so-called green card status by virtue of being married to a U.S. citizen and having two young children who are citizens. But days before he was flown back to his native Haiti, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied his green card application, clearing the way for him to be returned to his native land.
“His wife is devastated,” said Jossie Flor Sapunar, national communications director for the advocacy group We Are CASA, which had been advocating for his release from ICE detention.
Augustave’s plight had become a community and national cause. During the 19 days he was detained by ICE before his flight back to Haiti, clergy and immigration advocates from across the country pleaded for his release. Lawyers worked to prevent his removal and bring him home to his wife, Omara, and their two children.
In the end, it was for naught.
“The Trump administration deported a shepherd,” said Sapunar. “They evicted him and so many other Black immigrants from this country. But they cannot deport a legacy. The love he poured into his family, his church, and his community spread throughout the United States, despite the hate that the Trump administration spews.”
Augustave, who worked for CASA as an organizer in York, entered the country legally in 2016 and applied for asylum, seeking refuge from the chaos in Haiti.
After his asylum application was rejected in 2021, Augustave was ordered to be deported, but he was permitted to remain in the United States under the temporary protected status granted to Haitian refugees after a catastrophic earthquake in 2010.
The protective status remained in effect for years in response to a series of natural and man-made disasters. Haiti does not have a functioning government and has not had a head of state since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021. Much of its capital city, Port-au-Prince, is run by armed gangs. The U.S. government urges Americans not to travel there and if they should, advises that they submit a DNA sample should the worst occur.
Last year, the Trump administration sought to revoke the protective status, prompting court challenges, and this July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of eliminating the protection for Haitian immigrants.
When that happened, Augustave lost his ability to stay in the United States, despite his pending application for permanent residency. This week, after a two-day review, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service denied his green card application, giving no reason for rejecting his plea. Typically, reviews of green card applications take months, if not years, advocates said.
“This is what happens when a government decides that due process is a privilege it can revoke at will,” Ama Frimpong, CASA’s chief of services and legal advocacy, said in a statement.
Frimpong said Augustave’s legal challenges remain open. He has filed a petition to reopen his asylum proceeding, and lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court in Louisiana, where he was detained before being deported.
“He had a family. He had a community that stood with him. None of that mattered,” Frimpong said. “USCIS did not review his case. In summarily denying his green card application, it rubber-stamped a predetermined determination to deport him.”
Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said in a statement, “The Haitian people have already suffered too much. They have been forced to flee their native homes due to extreme violence, political turmoil, destabilization, poverty, and famine due in part to the US. Foreign policies towards Haiti.”
She said Augustave “is a man of God. He is a Haitian Christian who built a life in America, who is married to an American citizen, who raised American children, who pastored an American and Haitian congregation. And this administration put him on a plane like he was nothing. This is cruel and inhumane.”
Before he was deported, Augustave, a minister, father of two young children and organizer for CASA, wrote, “I now understand something I did not understand before I was detained: For every person whose name becomes known, there are so many others whose names we never hear. People knew my name.
“My life is not worth more because I am a pastor. My family does not matter more because people heard our story. That is what I want Americans to understand.
“Immigration detention is filled with people whose stories may never become news stories.
“They are fathers and sons. They are husbands and friends. They are people who are frightened. They are people who make mistakes. They are people who pray. They are people who need lawyers, information, medical care, compassion and sometimes simply another person willing to sit beside them when they believe they cannot keep going.
“They are human beings.”
Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: York pastor deported to Haiti despite pleas from advocates and clergy
Reporting by Mike Argento, York Daily Record / York Daily Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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