Advocates rally as Philly-area immigrant faces deportation despite new Biden enforcement guidelines

Philadelphia advocates are asking President Joe Biden to assist a West African immigrant who faces detention and deportation despite new ICE guidelines that tell agents to focus on people who pose serious threats to the public.

Christian M’Bagoyi, 42, of Bucks County, has no criminal record, according to his attorney. He’s married to a U.S. citizen with whom he has two daughters, ages 1 and 3, who are also citizens. Two immigration appeals are pending in court.

After two decades in the United States, working as a union carpenter, M’Bagoyi has been ordered to physically appear at the Philadelphia ICE office on Friday, told that he “has a final order of removal and has exhausted all forms of immigration relief.”

M’Bagoyi said in an interview Tuesday that he’s trying to stay calm but worries what will become of his family if he is deported. He is the primary caretaker for the children, while his wife, Sarika, works as a marketing and advertising consultant.

“What if I’m not around?” he asked.

Sarika, 38, said, “You can’t prepare your kids, or hold them enough, or hug them tight enough, to prepare them that they may not see their father again.”

ICE officials said Tuesday that they were looking into the matter and would comment as soon as possible.

The drama unfolds as activists here and elsewhere decry the recent deportations of hundreds of Black immigrants to dangerous countries like Haiti, where the State Department urges Americans not to travel, and question whether ICE will resist implementing Biden administration reforms.

“We’re very concerned he’s going to be detained at that check-in,” said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of Juntos, the South Philadelphia-based Latino-rights organization. “The Biden administration is being completely silent while Black immigrants are deported. ICE is maintaining business as usual, and business as usual is ‘Cruelty is the point.’”

Juntos is organizing supporters to accompany M’Bagoyi to the Center City office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where they’ll keep vigil outside until he emerges.

“What I see going on in this environment with Black immigrants has led me to higher concerns with this case,” said Philadelphia immigration attorney Matthew Archambeault, who represents the family. “He does not fit in the priorities.”

Last week acting ICE Director Tae Johnson issued new guidelines that dramatically narrow the scope of enforcement, directing agents to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose risks to national security, border security, or public safety.

The guidance essentially tells ICE officers to go after the worst offenders first, similar to the priorities that were in place under former President Barack Obama.

Former President Donald Trump unleashed ICE to arrest anyone who had no permission to be in the United States.

National security priorities are defined as people who have committed terrorism or espionage, or are suspected of being involved in those crimes. Border security includes people taken into custody at the line or another port of entry. And public safety applies to those convicted of an aggravated felony or an offense committed as part of a street gang or a drug cartel.

In deciding whether someone is a danger to the public, agents are to consider the seriousness of the offense but also personal factors such as family circumstances, health, and ties to the community.

The guidance also states, however, that it’s important for ICE to deport immigrants who have final removal orders and who had been in detention for at least 90 days after the order was issued. ICE told M’Bagoyi that he fits those circumstances, supporters said.

The Philadelphia ICE office is among the nation’s most aggressive.

In 2017, the field office, which covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware, arrested more undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions than any of the 23 other offices in the country, an investigation by ProPublica and The Inquirer found. That was striking given that Pennsylvania’s undocumented population ranked 16th in the country, with West Virginia’s and Delaware’s far behind that.

So far more than 1,600 people have signed an online petition that was posted Friday night to support M’Bagoyi. It is sponsored by Juntos and the UndocuBlack Network, an organization of current and formerly undocumented Black people, and addressed to Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and ICE Philadelphia Field Office Director Simona Flores-Lund.

Biden issued a moratorium on deportations Jan. 20, which was blocked temporarily by a federal judge in Texas. Black lawmakers in Washington have urged the president to stop the expulsions.

Sarika wrote in the petition that she needed help “to keep my family together.”

“‘Papa’ is the first word out of our kids’ mouths every morning,” she said. “I worry about big things like how the girls will fare without him emotionally, and who will continue to home-school them, but also small things like, ‘Oh God, the baby only eats with him.’”

She called her spouse “the epitome of a dedicated husband, father and friend,” active in arts and film and in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art performed to musical instruments and traditional songs. He has taught capoeira classes to children and led demonstrations for the public, she said.

“I want him to see his daughters grow up,” she wrote.

M’Bagoyi came to the United States by himself about 20 years ago, when he was 21, his ethnic background having put him at risk in West Africa. He did not want to name his homeland.

He entered the United States on a tourist visa, then stayed when it expired, he said.

His request for asylum was denied, M’Bagoyi said, but he was released from ICE custody under an order of supervision, which included a Social Security number and permission to work. Immigrants can spend years under supervision orders while living, working, paying taxes, and building lives in the United States.

M’Bagoyi’s work as a carpenter slowed as the pandemic took hold. He’s studying to become trained in information technology.

Sarika holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University and a master’s in public health from Hunter College in New York City.

On a typical day, she said, M’Bagoyi wakes up at 5:30 a.m. with the baby, meditates, and prepares breakfast for the family. Then he gets the kids “ready for school,” where they learn new words and numbers, and as a family choose an “animal of the day” to discuss.

He’s passionate, the couple said, about child milestones like potty-training, sound sleep, and healthy eating.

Sarika insisted, “I will continually advocate, and mobilize for Christian, until this is resolved.”