African Immigrant Children in America: Caught between Hope and Reality

On Thursday, September 24, 2020, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights hosted an event focused on the challenges faced by immigrant children and families of African origin. We organized the event in collaboration with Cameroon American Council, ALDEA–The People’s Justice Center, and Angry Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley. Held on the occasion of National African Immigrant Heritage Month, the conversation featured the Founder and Executive Director of the Cameroon American Council (CAC) Sylvie Bello, Board Certified Social Worker and Scholar Fese Elonge who studies disparities in access to healthcare among African immigrants, Founder of the Marie Mambu Makaya Foundation Makaya Revell, who experienced immigration detention in the United States, and Young Center Staff Attorney Abena Hutchful. 

This necessary conversation was inspired by people who across the country and around the world mobilized to demand racial justice and equity, and to resist anti-Black racism. Despite being one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, the voices and stories of African immigrants are often silenced and sidelined in the discussion about immigration. We wanted to address the issues facing Black and African immigrant families and children served by each of our organizations. We also wanted to equip our supporters with information about how they can take action. You can watch the event and read a summary below.

Young Center Staff Attorney Abena Hutchful introduced the event by addressing some of the key disparities in immigration enforcement that harm children and families of African origin. Citing research by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Hutchful brought attention to the disproportionately high rates of criminalization, solitary confinement, and deportation African immigrants face while in immigration proceedings. She also drew on her experiences at the Young Center to pinpoint the ways in which African immigrant children face disproportionate threats to their safety and well-being.

“At the Young Center, we serve children from various African countries and we are acutely aware of the threats that Black children face after release from detention. Like all Black children in America, children from African countries are more likely than other groups to face criminalization and police harassment and brutality. Many of the African immigrant children we work with in government custody escaped state-sanctioned violence when they fled to the United States and this re-traumatization by police leaves long-lasting scars.” -Abena Hutchful, Young Center Staff Attorney.

Scholar and social worker Fese Elonge provided a rich, historical context for the anti-African racism and discrimination we witness in immigration today. Citing to policies dating to colonization and enslavement, Elonge explored the ways in which immigrants of African origin have been systematically deprived of the right to seek protection and advancement in the United States. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 offers one powerful example. As Elonge explained, it was designed to cap immigrants from different countries, but  in which “you had African countries only allowed to have about 1,100 people come in, compared to countries like Germany that were able to have about 51,227 people come in to the United States.”

Advocate Makaya Revell spoke about his own experiences as a child who faced detention and deportation in the United States. He spoke about the violence and discrimination many African children in detention face and urged the audience to speak out about the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers. Revell, whose Marie Mambu Makaya foundation serves children impacted by conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, argued that during immigration proceedings the stories of African immigrant children are often not believed by immigration officials and that the complexity and realities of the conflicts they escape are often ignored. Revell also spoke to the resilience, tenacity, and potential of immigrant children. His story is one such example.

"Under deportation, I was the valedictorian in my class in high school, I graduated from college, I have a master’s degree, and I was able to create the Marie Mambu Makaya Foundation... I am still in the immigration limbo, even that didn’t stop me and cannot stop me to do what’s right for me and the people that we serve.” -Makaya Revell, Founder of the Maria Mambu Makaya Foundation

Celebrating ten years of her organization’s work, Sylvie Bello discussed some of the challenges facing African, and particularly Cameroonian, asylum-seekers at the border. Drawing on her personal experiences of working with families and children trapped at the border, Bello discussed some of the ways in which Cameroonian asylum-seekers face retaliation for demanding their rights and are marginalized by immigration officials both in the United States and in Mexico.

“We want everyone to know that Cameroonians, Africans, and their families, have been experiencing discrimination, but they have been resisting in the spirit of their ancestors.” -Sylvie Bello, Founder and Executive Director of Cameroon American Council

Event speakers also delivered calls to action to the public. Elonge encourage everyone to pay attention to immigration policies and demand racial equity. Bello spoke of the successful effort to free Pauline, a Cameroonian woman in ICE detention center, and encouraged people to take similar action on behalf of Josephine, another woman separated from her family due to immigration detention. Revell talked about his own advocacy work to convey the importance of speaking up and defending asylum-seekers and refugees.

The event ended with calls to action from the Young Center’s partners in this project to shed light on the many forms of immigration detention. Bridget Cambria, of Aldea-PJC, urged people to volunteer their time interpreting for or accompanying immigrants of African origin through their asylum proceedings. Madeleine Sandefur of the Angry Tias and Abuelas of the RGV, who urged people to sign up as accompaniment to asylum-seekers in detention centers as part of the organization’s “adopt-an-asylum-seeker” project, which can be found via Facebook or the website angrytiasandabuelas.com. The program allows volunteers to be in contact with asylum-seekers that are detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center in south Texas to provide moral support.

The Young Center’s collaboration with these three organization will continue with events in November and January; follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to join what we expect will be equally compelling conversations.