Freedom for Black Immigrants is Long Overdue

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 17, 2022

Washington, D.C. — This Sunday marks the national observance of Juneteenth, a holiday honoring the delayed emancipation of enslaved African descendants in Texas. Powerful, Black-led organizing has achieved undeniable victories for Black and brown communities across the country. But thousands of Black immigrants are still unable to access asylum, safety, and family unity as a result of persistent racial discrimination, structural barriers, and anti-Black, anti-immigrant policies — including Title 42 and Remain in Mexico.

Abena Hutchful, Policy and Litigation Attorney at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said:

“Fighting for immigrant rights and children’s rights is inherently a racial justice issue. We cannot protect the safety of children, without recognizing how Black children, and Black immigrant children, are criminalized, incarcerated, and deported at exponentially high rates.

Everyone has a right to seek asylum, regardless of immigration status or race. Yet, under Title 42 and Remain in Mexico — two cruel and racist Trump-era policies that remain in place today — Black immigrants are denied their right to seek safety and subjected to continued violence, persecution, and even death. These immigrants include thousands of children fleeing threats of violence in their home countries. Haitian immigrants, in particular, have been granted asylum at the lowest rate of any nationality since 2018, and over 20,000 asylum seekers have been deported back to Haiti since 2021, despite a federal court ruling that bars U.S. immigration officials from returning asylum seekers to unsafe conditions.

Freedom for Black immigrants is long overdue. In order to reimagine and rebuild an immigration system centered in the fundamental values of equity and justice, we must end racist policies that disproportionately deny Black immigrants their legal and human rights to safety and freedom.”

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Anabel Mendoza at media@theyoungcenter.org