A Haitian pastor whose wife had received notice that a petition to adjust his immigration status had been approved is facing deportation to Haiti anyway, days after he was arrested during a traffic stop while working as a food delivery driver for DoorDash.

Molis Augustave is among dozens of Haitian nationals expected to be placed aboard an Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flight in Alexandria, Louisiana, and deported to Haiti on Thursday.

At least three Haitian pastors have been the subject of high-profile detentions by ICE following their arrests. Meanwhile, 410 people, including seven children, some born in the U.S. born, have been deported to Haiti since July. The group includes at least 113 former beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status, who were deported mere days after being detained in the United States, according to Haitian government records. After sending monthly flights to Haiti, ICE is now sending them once a week.

Augustave was arrested on Sept. 4 while driving in York, Pennsylvania after he was pulled over by police reportedly for a broken taillight, according to his wife, Omara Boniface Nunez.

Days later, Nunez received an email from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informing her that the agency had approved the Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative that she had filed on her husband’s behalf. The form establishes a legal family tie between a U.S. sponsor and a foreign family member.

Approval of an I-130 petition does not by itself provide legal status or a green card. But it is a step toward obtaining lawful permanent status that, before the Trump administration came into office, shielded most approved applicants from deportation.

An ICE spokesperson told the Miami Herald that Augustave was arrested “on Sept. 4 for violating U.S. immigration laws and being unlawfully present in the U.S.

“Augustave has a final order of removal and will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” the spokesperson said. “Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure using the CBP Home app. The United States is offering illegal aliens up to $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now.”

Nunez said she is “heartbroken“over her husband’s detention and possible deportation to an unstable Haiti, where a recent surge in kidnappings by armed gangs has targeted even government officials and an attack by armed gangs on Tuesday on the rural town of Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye, just outside northern Haiti is fueling panic.

“I have seen Molis help other people, including people with family members in detention. But I did not imagine it would happen to me,” she said.

The couple met at work and have been married since March 2023. They have a 2-year-old son, Isaac. Augustave is also a stepfather to Nunez’s 9-year-old daughter, Sofia.

“Every day I wonder what the future holds. I have my kids to take care of, so I cannot not think through next steps. Do our lives continue with him here? What if he is deported?” she said.

Nunez said her daughter “understands what is happening but has a deep hope he is coming home,” she said. Their son, meanwhile, is longing for his father.

Augustave took the food delivery job with DoorDash to help the family make ends meet after losing his TPS this summer. Nunez said after her husband called her from an ICE office, she tried to see him but was refused. “An ICE agent just handed me his things through the door,” she said.

Augustave arrived in the United States in 2016 and applied for political asylum soon after. His application was denied in 2018 and he appealed. After losing his appeal in 2021, he was issued a final deportation order. His TPS status had protected him from deportation; however, when he lost the protection, he went back to his original status.

While under TPS, Augustave worked as an organizer for We are CASA, a national immigrants rights organization. Earlier this year, Augustave joined dozens of other clergy members in supporting a legal brief filed on behalf of Haitian TPS beneficiaries as the Supreme Court weighed the Trump administration’s request to terminate the humanitarian protection for more than 300,000 people.

On Wednesday, We Are CASA and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego-based immigrant rights group, held a press conference to bring attention to Augustave’s possible deportation despite his pending green-card application, lending their voice to others who have protested his detention in recent days.

“We are asking for one thing: time,” said Ama Frimpong, We Are CASA’s chief of services and legal advocacy. “Time for Pastor Molis’s ... green card application to be adjudicated. Time for due process to play out in a standard time frame, not an expedited, punitive one designed to rush him onto a plane before anyone can review his case.“

The husband and father, she said, “is an example of what happens when the administration strips hundreds of thousands of people of their TPS so that they can now be detained and deported, regardless of how long they have been in this country; how much they have contributed to this country; what they have built here; and that this is their home.”

Augustave is among those who lost his TPS protection in July after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the administration, clearing the way for Haitians to be detained and deported despite seeking other means to adjust their status, as the administration had asked them to do. Immigration advocates note that he still had a valid driver’s license when he was stopped, and he was pursuing a legal avenue to obtain permanent residency..

Nunez said she speaks to her husband daily, and he describes difficult conditions inside the detention center, including times where they’ve run out of food.

“He says he is surrounded by people who have been there for endless months. Sometimes there isn’t enough food. There are women and children held nearby,” she said. “Every time I talk to him he asks if we can get help for someone else. And he has started bible study meetings for his fellow detainees. Even now, he is still asking me to help those who are outside and looking for assistance.”

Nunez, a first-generation American, added that her family’s situation has given her a new perspective.

“I know that many families are going through what I am going through.”

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