Washington, DC – On September 30, the last day of National African Immigrant Heritage Month, hundreds of people joined a Zoom meeting to learn about the journey many Black Africans make to the U.S. to escape persecution–and the journey some are forced to make back via deportation. A recording is available here.
Sylvie Bello of the Cameroon American Council moderated the discussion. “As we’re thinking about the moment that we’re in, with September as National African Immigrant Heritage Month and this racial reckoning, we need to remind ourselves that slavery and human trafficking still exist today. As African immigrants and African immigrant activists and allies, we know that Black Lives Matter and that the African immigrant rights and Black Lives Matter movements have always been intertwined,” she said. “But when you look at the immigration landscape, you do not find a lot of policies and programs that focus on Black immigrants. In Montgomery County, Maryland, three out of the four Black men recently shot and killed by police are African immigrants.”
From Georgia, Pastor Ben described what it was like to spend five years in immigration jail after fleeing Nigeria. He said: “I came to the U.S. fleeing religious persecution. But then I was taken into detention. I remember at the airport one of the questions I asked myself, I even asked the customs officer at the airport, ‘Are you sure I’m in the U.S.?’ Because the treatment that I received from the airport was inhumane. Coming to the U.S. that is the greatest nation in the world, I had to really ask that maybe the plane directed me to another country.”
Houleye Thiam, President of the Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in US and a leader in Ohio and internationally, said: “When Mauritanians leave their country, about 90% are running away from a whole host of human rights abuses, including racism and slavery. Their only solution is to find a way to get away from that treatment. Immigration is often not a choice, or an adventure. It is often that people are running away from something bigger than themselves. Mauritanians here [in the U.S.] are brothers, sisters, and neighbors. They are not criminals, and they should not be treated that way.”
Offering the legal perspective, Jennie Guilfoyle said: “At the Immigration Justice Campaign, we are working on bringing more attorneys and volunteers to recognize what’s going on with the racist, abusive detention system in this country, where African immigrants are being locked up and held for a long time in what is called a civil detention system, but in practice is like criminal prison. The immigration court system has only gotten far more problematic under this administration, with politicized hiring of judges who clearly, when you look at their records, are not giving anyone a fair hearing at all. That very much impacts African immigrants in detention who may not have access to a lawyer or an interpreter who speaks their language.”
As the group described, Africans often travel thousands of miles on foot, bus, and train to try to get to safety in the United States, but become trapped in camps in Mexico or caged in the United States. They may apply for asylum with limited access to legal support and almost no interpreters, confronting an Immigration Court that does not understand their cultures and says they are “not credible.” Months or even years later, they are forced onto a plane “home” with expired or potentially fake travel documents obtained by the U.S. government, shackled the whole time, refugees again. The cycle is deadly, and it has to stop. What are the solutions?
The group offered a menu of improved policies, including extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to nationals of Cameroon, Mauritania, and other African countries; stopping deportations and allowing deported migrants to return to their lives in the U.S; and creating a functioning, anti-racist asylum system that includes a completely independent immigration court and universal legal representation for immigrants. For Congress, the group urges broader, African immigrant inclusive priorities in any proposed reform bills.
Right now, allies can support the Juneteenth Cameroonian protestors in Louisiana, who are facing retaliation from ICE via deportation to Cameroon. See this toolkit for ways to help halt their deportations and retweet it here.
For background reading and more ways to get involved, see the Facebook Event page: https://bit.ly/AfricaToDeport.
The event was hosted by the Cameroon American Council, Immigration Justice Campaign, Interfaith Immigration Coalition, American Friends Service Committee, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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