U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have deported Haitian Pastor Molis Augustave to Haiti after officials previously spared him from removal by taking him off a flight at the last minute. The immigrant rights group We Are CASA announced Thursday that Augustave had been sent back after weeks of dispute over his status, FOX43 reported. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his application for permanent residency, known as a green card, last week.
Advocates said the agency gave no explanation, and his legal team is still pursuing an appeal. Officials had pulled Augustave off the earlier flight so his green card request could be considered, after a national campaign by elected officials, clergy and community groups. He had been one of 90 Haitians booked on that flight.
Ama Frimpong, who leads legal advocacy and services at We Are CASA, said at the time that Augustave told his wife he was frightened as he was being put on the plane. The delay let his lawyers ask the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen his case and urgently halt his removal, she said.
Frimpong said Augustave’s pending filings had included a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention, a motion to reopen and an I-485 application to seek a green card from inside the U.S. His I-130 petition, a family-based request, had already been approved, she said. “This is what happens when a government decides that due process is a privilege it can revoke at will,” Frimpong said.
She added that USCIS had denied the application without reviewing his case. Jossie Flor Sapunar, the group’s national communications director, said, “The Trump administration deported a shepherd.” ICE detained Augustave on Sept. 4 after West Manchester Township police stopped him over a broken headlight.