South Philly man faces sudden deportation after more than 20 years in the U.S.

Two years ago, Christian M’Bagoyi emerged triumphant and relieved from the Philadelphia ICE office, greeted by two dozen supporters who cheered the West African immigrant and his wife, Sarika.

Now all that’s changed. On Wednesday evening, M’Bagoyi, about 44, was being held, awaiting deportation from a Louisiana facility after being arrested by immigration authorities at his South Philadelphia home last week.

He could be sent out of the country within 72 hours.

It was unclear why he was seized, supporters said, as he had continued to make regular check-ins with ICE, as required under his immigration supervision. Organizers with Juntos and the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition were contacting elected officials to try to stop his deportation.

“I’m dumbfounded,” his wife, Sarika Kumar, said Wednesday. “We made a conscious decision to move to Philadelphia, to build community, to have more support. We felt we were going to be safe here.”

She thinks her husband may have been arrested because he recently renewed his work permit, which perhaps triggered a notice in the system.

“The support is reviving,” she said. “I’m using everyone’s energy to uplift myself and keep pushing. The neighbors, those around us, I feel fortunate to live in Philadelphia.”

She told their daughters, ages 3 and 5, that their father had gone to help a friend.

ICE officials could not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A petition on M’Bagoyi’s behalf had gathered more than 4,600 signatures on Wednesday evening.

“He’s been reporting without fail,” said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of Juntos, the Latino advocacy group, who said she had rarely seen such a sudden arrest of someone who had been in regular contact with the enforcement agency.

M’Bagoyi’s spouse is a U.S. citizen, as are their children. He was issued a final order of removal more than two years ago and, according to ICE, had exhausted all forms of immigration relief.

Still, it’s not unusual for people with final orders to be allowed to remain in the country as their immigration cases proceed. M’Bagoyi appeared to fall outside of agency guidelines, set by the Biden administration, that dramatically narrowed the agency’s enforcement priorities.

Those guidelines were challenged in court, and last year the Supreme Court at least temporarily let stand a lower-court ruling that blocked the new guidelines. The Biden Administration wanted agents to concentrate on arresting undocumented immigrants who threaten public safety or who had entered the country after November 2020.

M’Bagoyi came to the United States about 22 years ago, at age 21, after his ethnic background put him at risk in West Africa. He did not want to reveal his homeland in interviews.

He legally entered the United States on a tourist visa, but then stayed after it expired, he said. His request for asylum was denied.

He was allowed to remain in the country under an ICE order of supervision, which provides a Social Security number and employment permission. Undocumented immigrants can spend years under supervision, living, working, paying taxes, and building families in this country — then suddenly be scheduled for quick deportations.

He has worked as a carpenter and studied to become trained in information technology. His spouse is a marketing and advertising consultant, holding a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University and a master’s in public health from Hunter College in New York City.

“We have a really short window,” Nunez said. “Our hope is to show public support, which should be considered before they take Christian away from his family.”