Black migrants exist at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities and remain invisibilized in public discourse and they have and continue to contribute significantly to the growth and diversity of the overall Black population in the United States.
The number of Black migrants in the United States is currently estimated at 4 million, of whom 15% are undocumented. This figure has increased by 71% since 2000 and four-fold since 1980. Black migrants now account for 10% of the Black population and 7.2% of all non-citizens.
Thousands of migrants from various countries grappling with dangerous conditions seek protection and asylum at the U.S. border. However, Black immigrants (from Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America) worldwide are subjected to disproportionate mistreatment, discrimination and violence: Black immigrants are overwhelmingly unwelcome.
The world has witnessed incidents and stories of rafts of Black immigrants being left out to sea by European countries who refuse to rescue and accept them; many thousands of Black immigrants seeking a better life have died preventable deaths due to the cruelty and abandonment of global Western powers and many have been mistreated and abused at hands of many. The tragic death of the migrants in San Antonio and the death and torture of as many as 37 African migrants attempting to cross from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, as well as the 42 young Haitians including eleven women who lost their lives off the coast of Puerto Rico, are tragedies that could have been prevented.
In the U.S., all Black immigrants are disproportionately demonized by anti-Black immigration policies and are the targets of violence and exclusion at the border, medical abuses while in detention, overcriminalization, mass detention and deportation. The U.S.’s constant mistreatment of Black immigrants is rooted in the larger context of the U.S’s foundational principles of anti-Black and anti-indigenous violence and genocide. Thousands of Black migrants, many of whom are Haitian, are stranded in treacherous conditions in Mexican border towns. Haitian migrants are facing open violence from CBP that is reminiscent of the horrific practices endured by their enslaved ancestors centuries ago–photos of officers using reins for horses on migrants simply trying to purchase water and food as they wait for the chance to seek protection is still fresh in our minds.
The U.S. has a sordid history of specifically targeting Haitians for anti-Black discrimination, violence, expulsion, and mass detention. Under international law and U.S. law, Haitians have the right to seek asylum in the U.S.; instead, they have faced insurmountable barriers to entry due to Title 42. The Biden Administration continues to deport Black migrants including pregnant women and toddlers.
Haitians are being deported back to the same dire conditions that have been internationally categorized as a humanitarian crisis – a crisis that has spurred a new designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by the Biden Administration.
As we mourn with the survivors and families of migrants who lost their lives in San Antonio on June 27 and the tragic deaths and mistreatments of Black migrants everywhere, we also call on the Biden-Harris Administration and Other Governments to Stop the War Against Migrants and to Ensure Safe Access to Asylum Protections. We urge the Biden Administration to pursue a coherent and just foreign policy agenda with Haiti and Black immigrants.
With this petition, we issue four urgent demands from the Biden Administration:
· Halt Deportations and End the Use of Title 42 at the Border and at All Ports of Entry.
· Enact Wide-Scale Humanitarian Parole for Haitians.
· Defund and Divest from DHS, ICE, and CBP.
· Invest in Humane, Holistic Immigration
SIGN THIS PETITION to demand the Biden Administration Stop its war on Black Immigrants.
