Philly man faces Wednesday deportation after 20 years in the U.S.

When her husband was arrested by ICE, facing deportation after two decades in the United States, Sarika Kumar M’Bagoyi told their young daughters that their father had gone to help a friend.

The girls, 3 and 5, filled in the rest from their imaginations: There must have been a tornado, they told their mom, and the friend’s roof had blown off. Their father, Christian M’Bagoyi, went to help because he’s a carpenter and knew how to fix the house.

That was nearly three weeks ago, and now the situation has turned dire for the South Philadelphia family. M’Bagoyi is scheduled to be deported to West Africa early Wednesday from the Texas detention center where he’s being held.

Supporters plan to rally outside the Philadelphia ICE office at noon on Tuesday, and to commence a “phone zap” — a massive call-in to the lines of government officials — two hours later. More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition calling for M’Bagoyi’s release.

“We’re fighting tooth and nail. We’re doing everything we can to stop this deportation,” said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of Juntos, the Latino advocacy group. “I’ve never seen ICE aggressively target and move someone the way they’ve targeted Christian.”

Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asked for comment on M’Bagoyi’s arrest, said the agency makes its determinations on a case-by-case basis in accordance with federal law and policy. All noncitizens who violate immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention, and removal, the agency said.

M’Bagoyi’s situation shows the vagaries of the U.S. immigration system, which can mete out widely varying treatment to different people in nearly identical circumstances.

M’Bagoyi had been issued a final order of removal, and according to ICE, had exhausted all forms of immigration relief. But in the U.S. system, final does not necessarily mean final.

Like some other undocumented immigrants who have been issued final orders, M’Bagoyi, 44, was allowed to remain in the country under an ICE order of supervision. That provided him with a Social Security number and permission to work.

Undocumented immigrants like M’Bagoyi can spend years under supervision, living, working, paying taxes, and building families in this country, then be arrested without warning and scheduled for quick deportations.

Sometimes the opposite plays out.

Last year, for example, an Indonesian couple in Philadelphia was granted permanent residency in the United States — after previously being arrested, jailed, and faced with removal.

For M’Bagoyi, events unfolded quickly during the last three weeks.

On April 19, M’Bagoyi was met by ICE agents as he returned home after dropping his children at school. He was taken to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a 1,876-bed ICE detention center in Philipsburg, Pa., northwest of Harrisburg.

From there, supporters said, he was sent to Louisiana, to the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, and from there to the Prairieland Detention Center, a 700-bed facility about 40 miles southwest of Dallas.

Supporters said it was unclear why M’Bagoyi was seized, as he had continued to make regular check-ins with ICE, as required under his supervision. His wife wonders if her husband may have been arrested because he recently renewed his work permit, which perhaps triggered a notice in the ICE system.

On Monday, organizers with Juntos and the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, the advocacy groups, were continuing to contact elected officials to try to stop the deportation.

“There’s no good reason for Christian to be deported,” said Andy Kang, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition. “It’s wrong to just rip up this family. … This is a perfect example of our immigration system running amok.”

Kang noted that Black people like M’Bagoyi can face harsher treatment in the immigration system.

Black people make up 7.2% of all noncitizens, but comprise 20.3% of those facing deportation on criminal grounds, according to research by RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in Texas, and by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration and the American Friends Service Committee.

They can face lengthier detentions, and higher denial rates when seeking asylum, the groups’ data shows.

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 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.

The family had recently moved from Bucks County, believing that Philadelphia, a sanctuary city with an active immigrant-support network, would be a safer place for them to live. M’Bagoyi’s spouse, a marketing and advertising consultant, is a U.S. citizen, as are their children.

“We’re hoping at the rally that Philly is going to show up,” Nunez said. “We’re not going to give up.”