Advocate for Black immigrants.

Get Educated

• Donate to the Black Immigrant Bail Fund in their mission to eradicate the mass incarceration of Black immigrants.

• Act for immigrants from Mauritania, sign onto a letter calling for their protected status. Learn more about why immigrants from Cameroon also require protected status.

• Follow and support these Black immigrant advocates and organizers: @HaitianBridge @UndocuBlack @OfficialBLMP @BAJITweet.

• Action items provided by the Movement for Black Lives.

Last week, the Biden administration deported 72 people, including a two-month-old baby and 22 other children, back to Haiti (The Guardian). Advocates for immigrants approximate that over 900 Haitians have been deported in the weeks prior (Washington Post). This, paired with other recent efforts that disproportionately impact Black immigrants, has spurred advocates to call for accountability on the racial disparities in an unjust system.

Haiti is in the midst of roiling political turmoil. Its president, Jovenel Moïse, is refusing to step down after opposition called for him to step down on February 7 (The Guardian). The United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Biden Administration all support his plan to remain in office until 2022. However, as protests mount, citizens and human rights activists are worried about the people’s safety. 

Similar unrest threatens other Black immigrants being targeted by ICE. Over 40,000 immigrants from Cameroon are at risk of deportation while the country reels from multiple ongoing conflicts. Activists call for the government to offer these immigrants Temporary Protected Status, abbreviated as TPS (Clinic Legal). A similar effort is underway to protect Black Mauritanian immigrants, who are in fear of returning to a country with rampant “police violence, slavery, human trafficking, genocide, restrictions on free speech and association, discrimination in education and access to citizenship and identity documents, and racism and repression” (Ignatian Solidarity Network).

Furthermore, advocates emphasize that these expulsions are happening amid the pandemic, rising unemployment, and just weeks after the Biden administration pledged to improve immigration policies in their first 100 days. On Friday, the administration announced that they would allow approximately 25,000 migrants who have been waiting for months in Mexico under a program called the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, to enter the U.S. as soon as next week. Lawmakers expressed concern that ICE is “disparately targeting Black asylum-seekers and immigrants for detention, torture, and deportation” (Washington Post)

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It is unconscionable for us as a country to continue with the same draconian, cruel policies that were pursued by the Trump administration.

Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, for The Guardian

 There’s historical data that shows the disparities that Black immigrants face. Although most media attention on immigration centered on the Latinx community, RAICES Texas found that 44% of families in detention during the pandemic were Haitian (RAICES Texas).  While 7% of non-citizens in the U.S. are Black, they make up a full 20% of those facing deportation on criminal grounds, even though there’s no evidence that Black immigrants commit crime at greater rates than other immigrants or U.S-citizens (Black Alliance for Just Immigration). While detained, Black immigrants are six times more likely to be sent to solitary confinement (RAICES Texas).

Black families are not just being detained more often, but ICE also makes it more difficult for them to be released. The bond system allows some immigrants in detention to be released if they can pay thousands of dollars in fees. RAICES Texas, which runs a fund that pays for bail on immigrants’ behalf, found that between June 2018 and June 2020, they paid $10,500 per bond payment, on average. But bonds paid for Haitian immigrants by RAICES averaged $16,700, 54% higher than for other immigrants (RAICES Texas).

Last week, several Black activist groups created Black Immigrant Advocacy Week of Action, calling on the Biden administration to recognize and address systemic anti-Black racism in how the government treats immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Let’s carry that work forward and continue to advocate for Black immigrants.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Biden administration is deporting Black immigrants, mainly Haitian, at a time of significant political unrest both here in the U.S. and abroad

• Black immigrants are disproportionately targeted for deportation and detained

• The efforts of the Biden administration to improve immigration in the U.S. may be racially-charged, and Black advocacy organizations are calling for accountability