By News Americas Staff Writer
News Americas, NY, NY, Thurs. Sept. 24, 2026: US ICE today deported Pastor Molis Augustave to Haiti, ending a 19-day journey from a routine traffic stop in York, Pennsylvania to removal from the country where his US citizen wife and two US-born children remain.
Augustave, a York pastor and former We Are CASA organizer, was handed to ICE by West Manchester Township police on September 5th following a stop for a broken headlight – made possible by the township’s 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities. He was scheduled for deportation on September 17th but was pulled off that flight at the last minute after a nationwide advocacy campaign led by his wife, Omara, and a coalition of immigrant rights and faith organizations.
That reprieve was brief. According to We Are CASA, the pressure that got him removed from the first flight prompted a review of his pending I-485 green card application – which the Department of Homeland Security denied two business days later, on September 21. He was deported today, September 24th.
“They sought to silence a shepherd,” said Jossie Flor Sapunar, National Communications Director of We Are CASA, in a statement. “The federal government feared a Black man from Haiti who loved his wife, cared for his children, pastored a congregation, and made a people-powered movement… But they cannot deport a legacy.”
Ama Frimpong, Chief of Services and Legal Advocacy at We Are CASA, said Augustave had an approved I-130 petition, a pending I-485 application, a pending motion to reopen his removal proceedings, and a habeas petition — none of which stopped the deportation. “USCIS did not review his case,” Frimpong said. “In summarily denying his green card application, it rubber-stamped a predetermined determination to deport him.”
From detention in Louisiana before his removal, Augustave published a reflection describing what he learned while awaiting his fate alongside 89 others on the flight he was pulled from: “For every person whose name becomes known, there are so many others whose names we never hear… Who knows whether one of them was afraid? Who knows whether one left children behind? Who knows whether someone arrived in Haiti without family or friends to receive them?”
Guerline Jozef, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, called the deportation “cruelty” and “ethnic cleansing dressed up in bureaucratic language,” pointing to Haiti’s ongoing instability. “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,” said Jozef. “Pastor Molis 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. This is ethnic cleansing dressed up in bureaucratic language. We will continue fight for Pastor Molis. We will fight for every immigrant sent back to a country they do where they are not guaranteed safety and protection. And we will not stop until they are all able to stay here with their families.”
Augustave’s wife, Omara, and their two children, Isaac and Sofia, remain in York. A Motion to Reopen his removal proceedings remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The US State Department has warned Americans not to travel to Haiti but continues to deport nationals there despite the gang violence and instability of the country.
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