ICE arrested a husband and father in South Philly recently. Where is our humanity?

Last Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign. While he was giving his speech, Sarika Kumar was desperately looking for her husband.

Just a few days earlier, Christian M’Bagoyi had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his house in South Philly. On that day, as he usually does, M’Bagoyi had taken their two young children, the oldest one only 5, to school; but this time, ICE agents were waiting for him when he returned home. They detained him and drove away in front of his wife and neighbors.

M’Bagoyi has been living in the U.S. for more than 20 years. And yet, without warning, he was arrested and sent to a facility in Louisiana. Now he is in Texas, awaiting a plane that will take him out of the country and away from his family. All of this happened within one week, showing just how swiftly and coldly efficient our nation’s immigration system works when it comes to destroying families, while Congress has failed to make any real progress in decades.

M’Bagoyi came to the U.S. at age 21, saying his ethnic background put him at risk in West Africa. He entered the country legally, on a tourist visa, and says he stayed after it expired. He requested asylum and was denied.

His wife is a U.S. citizen. His two children are citizens. Over the years, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. under an ICE order of supervision — he has a Social Security number and can work. He earned a living as a carpenter and trained in information technology. Although this system allows undocumented immigrants to live in the U.S. for years, they can be deported at a moment’s notice.

M’Bagoyi is, by all accounts, a good husband, father, friend, and neighbor. A petition on his behalf has more than 8,000 signatures.

A petition on his behalf has more than 8,000 signatures.

Kumar’s two young children have been asking her where their daddy is. What is their mother supposed to tell them?

Just a few months ago, M’Bagoyi and his wife met with Rep. Dwight Evans’ staff on a Zoom call to share their constant fear that their family would be torn apart by ICE at any moment. Their deepest fears have now become reality, and their family is on the edge of being permanently torn apart.

When announcing his bid for reelection, Biden said he is in a “battle for the soul of America.” Where does M’Bagoyi and his family fit into that? Do immigrant families, held hostage, exploited, and targeted by the racism, brokenness, and paralysis of our heartless immigration system, count as part of America’s soul? How is America’s soul impacted by the Biden administration turning away and denying a fair hearing to thousands of asylum-seekers under the administration’s restrictive new policy, which some advocates argue amounts to an “asylum ban”?

The Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition believes that the well-being of America’s soul is inextricably tied to how we welcome and treat immigrants. Immigration is not a problem or a losing political issue — it’s a solution to so many of our nation’s most pressing problems, including worker shortages, allowing us to grow our economy and tax base. Led by our member organization Juntos, located in South Philly, we are fighting as hard as we can to bring M’Bagoyi back to his family.

» READ MORE: Philly, we need to open our doors to more immigrants | Opinion

But time is precious. At this point, only President Biden has the power to save M’Bagoyi and his family. To do otherwise would be immoral.

President Biden also has the power to shut down the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a 1,876-bed private facility in Clearfield County, where M’Bagoyi was initially sent. To do otherwise would signal he remains committed to a vision for our nation that relies on incarceration.

We cannot turn the page on white supremacy but allow one of its most effective tools, our immigration system, to grind along as it preys on our families.

Andy Kang is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition and cochair of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) Action Network.