Summary of Human Rights Violations in ICE
In the United States, black noncitizens face unequal handling and racially biased detention, immigration, and compliance frameworks. This includes racial profiling through immigration legal proceedings. Black immigrants are faced with excessive use of force, physical neglect, and unequal treatment by U.S. officers in ICE centers. Black immigrants are also subjected to lengthy detainment, which may include the enforcement of more incredible bonds on immigrants of color; insufficient reach to legal representation, constitutional information, and proper understanding of detainment (Brown et al., 2016); reduced level of effective fear screenings and accepted numbers for people from African countries; lack of exposure to legal information, legal representation, and objectives in detention.
At a higher rate, refugees and migrants from third-world nations are deemed less credible throughout the fear-screening interview process than other nationalities. This proportion is not appropriate to their share of the overall people looking for asylum in the U.S. According to the latest government statistics, immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa African countries were deemed untrustworthy in 8.5% of reliable fear interviews in Fiscal Year (F.Y.) 2020, which was 37% greater than the national average for all foreigners that year (Brown et al., 2016). Asylum applicants from Black-majority countries had some of the most significant adverse credibility finding percentages. In contrast, immigrants from Haiti had remarkably low credible fear audition passage percentages from FY 2016 to 2021(Brown et al., 2016). This resulted in ridiculous rates of accelerated expulsion from the United States.
Moreover, black immigrants face harsh judgment and unfair conviction through the United States judicial system. Roughly 76% of displaced Black immigrants were expelled from the United States due to prior interaction with the U.S. judicial system. Only 50 percent of all non-Black immigrants are expelled from the country because of previous interaction with the U.S. justice system (Brown et al., 2016). This disparity in border security is attributable to the discrepancies in outcomes experienced by Black immigrants in the United States. This disparity is exacerbated by the United States’ social and economic structures, such as the country’s widespread stigmatization of African Americans. Numerous studies have shown that Black immigrants are detained for more extended periods than non-Black migrants and are less inclined to be released from immigration detention on bond or parole.
The disparities are caused, in part, by negative race-based preconceptions against Black refugees and migrants from the Caribbean and African regions, a lack of accessibility to legal assistance who communicate with their languages or are acquainted with their country, and imperfect screenings that fail to provide an adequate viewpoint to refugees and immigrants in distinct African accents and are only explained to the refugees and migrants in Spanish or English (Jefferis, 2020). Furthermore, in immigration court extradition proceedings, black asylum applicants face discriminatory practices such as denials of reasonable clarity, lack of access to counsel, intentionally rushed prosecutions, and arbitration tribunal bias, culminating in unlawful refusals of refugee status and, in some instances, ejection to torture and persecution. Haitian asylum seekers had the second-highest rate of denial. Between 2001 and 2021, Haitian asylum seekers had the second-highest proportion of denials of any nationality. As a result, the immigration courts appear to be ineffective in combating prejudice against black asylum applicants in the United States.
The societal condition of racism has contributed significantly to the discrimination of black immigrants, who are treated more adversely than non-black immigrants. Racism is rarely conscious, explicit, or visible—it is frequently systemic and structural. Systemic and institutionalized racism are forms of discrimination firmly ingrained in systems, regulations, written or unwritten initiatives, and engrained beliefs and practices that result in pervasive poor treatment and persecution of people of color, with adverse health consequences (Jefferis, 2020). Exclusion, unfair lending standards and other obstacles to buying a home and wealth accumulation, schools’ reliance on local taxes, environmental unfairness, biased police enforcement and jail sentences of men and boys of dark complexion, and voter disenfranchisement policies are a few examples.
Role of BAJI in Fighting Prejudice on Black Immigrants
There are roughly 21 million immigrant women in the United States, with approximately 1.7 million (8.2 percent) being Black. Black immigrant girls and women come from all over the world. However, most of them are from Africa and the Caribbean, with Haiti, Jamaica, and Nigeria being the top three nations of origin for Black refugees (Layne, 2021). The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) performs on a national and state level to inform and connect with African-American and black immigrant societies in the organization and advocacy of racial, social, and economic justice. Their analysis reveals that Black immigrant women and girls in the United States offer an overview of the situation of Black immigrant women and girls in the United States (McKanders, 2020). This shows how intense racism and discrimination are in the United States, primarily against detained black immigrants.
The majority of immigration headlines and stories focus on Latinx and Hispanic neighborhoods. However, there are many more perspectives and interactions that must be advocated to gain a complete understanding of the national fabric knitted by immigrants. We highlight the Black Alliance for Just Immigration in honor of Black History Month (McKanders, 2020). BAJI is an institution that promotes justice and equality for Black immigrants who are fighting racial prejudice (Layne, 2021). Despite the ongoing uproar and struggle for human rights, the United States continues to face racism inside the laws and culture. This makes it difficult for Black immigrants to obtain the fair treatment that the country asserts every person deserves, particularly during the immigration process. “We can come out on top by becoming leaders in the struggle against institutionalized racism and systemic discrimination,” says the BAJI website (McKanders, 2020). BAJI works to end this discrimination and provide equal human rights to Black immigrants.
BAJI enlightens and interacts with black immigrants and African American neighborhoods for them to organize and actively support racial, social, and economic justice. Native BAJI Organizing Committees in California, New York, Florida, and Georgia, along with staff in Minnesota and Texas, form coalitions and launch campaigns in their respective communities to advocate for racial justice (McKanders, 2020). BAJI works with religious communities to leverage their prophetic voice and induces vibrant conversations with black immigrants and African Americans to learn more about race, their diverse identities, racism, migration, and globalization at the local and regional levels. Although BAJI fights for the human rights of Black immigrants, it is essential to note that the organization emphasizes women and children. This is unfortunate since recorded cases of discrimination against immigrants in ICE centers involve not only women and girls but also boys and girls. Therefore, it would be much better if the organization served both sides of the gender.
Black Immigrants Discrimination and Poverty
In the United States, Black households have one-twentieth the capital as White households. Each dollar earned by White families is compared to five cents earned by Black families. According to Dyer (2020), the wealth gap is not due to disparities in workplace regulations or regular working hours among groups (2020). Instead, the growing wealth disparity can be directly traced to unequal procedures and policies that favor the wealthy (Dyer, 2020). The impact of health inequality was spotlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when the economically disadvantaged were more susceptible to contracting SARS-CoV-2 and dying. For many healthcare providers, the connection between health and poverty has primarily been based on healthcare access. The several downstream consequences of poverty include poor nutrition and poor housing.
References
Brown, H. E., Jones, J. A., & Dow, T. (2016). Unity in the struggle: immigration and the south’s emerging civil rights consensus. Law and Contemporary Problems, 79(3), 5–27. Web.
Dyer, O. (2020). Covid-19: Black people and other minorities are hardest hit in U.S. BMJ, m1483. Web.
Jefferis, D. (2020). Constitutionally unaccountable: Privatized immigration detention. 95 Indiana Law Journal 145 (2020), 95(1). Web.
Layne, A. (2021). It’s not just black and white: How black immigrants continue to influence the fight against police violence. Journal of Liberal Arts and Humanities, 2(6). Web.
McKanders, K. (2021). Immigration and racial justice: Enforcing the borders of blackness. Georgia State University Law Review, 37(4), 1139.Web.