Lee writes: "Last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
agency quietly deported dozens of African immigrants who were trying to seek
asylum in the United States. Sixty-three men who were unable to secure visas
to stay in the country legally on humanitarian relief claims, according to a
source within ICE who spoke to ThinkProgress on condition of anonymity."
ICE agents apprehend a man. (photo: Reuters)
The Mass Deportation of Black Immigrants That You Haven't Heard About
By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, ThinkProgress
26 July 16
Last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency
quietly deported dozens of African immigrants who were trying to seek asylum
in the United States.
Sixty-three men who were unable to secure visas to stay in the country
legally on humanitarian relief claims, according to a source within ICE who
spoke to ThinkProgress on condition of anonymity. Activists who spoke with
deported individuals said they were sent back to Nigeria, Ghana, and
Senegal.
Immigration activists believe that number may be closer to 90. They also say
many of these men shouldn't have been targeted by ICE in the first place
because they had already passed their credible fear interviews - a
preliminary step in the asylum process to determine whether immigrants would
be placed in grave danger if they're returned to their home countries.
Some lawyers say that black immigrants have the odds stacked against them in
the immigration court system. ICE generally requires immigrants to have a
sponsor who's a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. The agency also
has stringent requirements for identity documents, which is problematic for
immigrants from countries like Somalia where the government didn't always
have the ability to issue those documents, according to Jessica Shulruff
Schneider, a supervising attorney at the Americans for Immigrant Justice.
"Many of the individuals that are Africans don't have close family members
or friends to assist them from the outside," said Shulruff Schneider. "It
makes it virtually impossible to fight your case."
One man deported back to Ghana, who asked for his name not to be published,
did have that kind of support. He had a sponsor in the United States ready
to take him in. Nonetheless, an immigration judge threw out his asylum
claims and deported him from the Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida.
He's just one of many African immigrants who began appearing at the Krome
Detention Center in the weeks leading up to their deportation around
mid-June. Activists like Ellen DeYoung, a volunteer with the immigrant
detention center visitation group Friends of Orange County Detainees,
quickly noticed this troubling trend.
DeYoung had been visiting an immigrant detainee from Ghana who wants to be
identified only as N.M. since last summer as part of a visitation program to
prevent detainees from feeling isolated near her home in Orange County,
California. But in early June, she says N.M. was transferred away from that
detention center to Krome.
"When he called me from Krome, he said that Africans were coming in from all
over the country - everywhere," DeYoung recalled. "He continued to call
saying, 'please help us, please help us, they're going to deport us on
Tuesday.'"
According to DeYoung, the conditions that N.M. was subjected to at Krome
were "nightmarish, like something out of a movie."
"He said two people were given injections and put into wheelchairs. He saw
somebody rolled up and tied into a canvas and put into the plane. Some of
them were pepper sprayed and I didn't get a clear answer on that on how and
why they were sprayed," DeYoung said.
ThinkProgress was unable to verify DeYoung's disturbing account of abuse,
but it tracks with some of the allegations of physical abuse documented in
numerous lawsuits brought against the Department of Homeland Security, the
federal agency that oversees immigration enforcement.
The national spotlight typically isn't focused on black immigrants from
African and Caribbean countries. In the conversation about deportation, it's
often exclusively portrayed as a Latino issue.
But deportation is part of the reality of the black immigrant experience.
According to forthcoming report by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration
(BAJI) and New York University Law School's Immigrants Rights Clinic, black
immigrants make up 7 percent of the total immigrant population (roughly 3.4
million people) and 10.6 percent of all immigrants in removal proceedings
between 2003 and 2015. In the 2014 fiscal year, the ICE agency deported
1,203 African immigrants.
"One of the challenges that we at BAJI face in our work is that black
immigrants from Africa and the Carribean, are largely 'invisible-lized' in
the public's consciousness, so the face of the immigrant is often a Latino
face," Carl Lipscombe, policy and legal manager at Black Alliance for Just
Immigration, told ThinkProgress. "Largely these immigrants are in
deportation proceedings as a result of a criminal conviction, or some sort
of criminal contact. And that can be anything from possession of a small
amount of marijuana to petty larceny, some sort of theft of something of
little value. Any of those types of offenses can result in someone being
detained or deported."
Since 1996, many immigrants with minor criminal convictions have been caught
up in civil deportation proceedings thanks in large part to a pair of
legislation known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act (AEDPA). These federal laws made it mandatory for immigrants to be
deported after they serve out prison sentences if they had been charged with
aggravated felonies, as well as expanded the list of crimes that qualify as
aggravated felonies.
Racial factors contribute to black immigrants coming into contact with the
criminal justice system in the first place.
"[Black immigrants] tend to live in urban areas," Lipscombe said. "They tend
to live in lower-income areas and they tend to live in neighborhoods that
are heavily policed for whatever reason. As a result of policy, like 'Broken
Windows' or 'Stop and Frisk,' many black migrants -- like black Americans --
get arrested and end up with a contact with the criminal justice system at
some point in their lives, many at a young age."
Though the deportation of black immigrants likely won't stop, advocates are
hoping that people will begin talking about them as a group in the same way
that they are folded into other movements.
"When we talk about Black Lives Matter, that includes black immigrants and
black people worldwide," Lipscombe said.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
ICE agents apprehend a man. (photo: Reuters)
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/07/26/3801126/deportation-black-im
migrants/http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/07/26/3801126/deportation
-black-immigrants/
The Mass Deportation of Black Immigrants That You Haven't Heard About
By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, ThinkProgress
26 July 16
ast month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency
quietly deported dozens of African immigrants who were trying to seek asylum
in the United States.
Sixty-three men who were unable to secure visas to stay in the country
legally on humanitarian relief claims, according to a source within ICE who
spoke to ThinkProgress on condition of anonymity. Activists who spoke with
deported individuals said they were sent back to Nigeria, Ghana, and
Senegal.
Immigration activists believe that number may be closer to 90. They also say
many of these men shouldn't have been targeted by ICE in the first place
because they had already passed their credible fear interviews - a
preliminary step in the asylum process to determine whether immigrants would
be placed in grave danger if they're returned to their home countries.
Some lawyers say that black immigrants have the odds stacked against them in
the immigration court system. ICE generally requires immigrants to have a
sponsor who's a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. The agency also
has stringent requirements for identity documents, which is problematic for
immigrants from countries like Somalia where the government didn't always
have the ability to issue those documents, according to Jessica Shulruff
Schneider, a supervising attorney at the Americans for Immigrant Justice.
"Many of the individuals that are Africans don't have close family members
or friends to assist them from the outside," said Shulruff Schneider. "It
makes it virtually impossible to fight your case."
One man deported back to Ghana, who asked for his name not to be published,
did have that kind of support. He had a sponsor in the United States ready
to take him in. Nonetheless, an immigration judge threw out his asylum
claims and deported him from the Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida.
He's just one of many African immigrants who began appearing at the Krome
Detention Center in the weeks leading up to their deportation around
mid-June. Activists like Ellen DeYoung, a volunteer with the immigrant
detention center visitation group Friends of Orange County Detainees,
quickly noticed this troubling trend.
DeYoung had been visiting an immigrant detainee from Ghana who wants to be
identified only as N.M. since last summer as part of a visitation program to
prevent detainees from feeling isolated near her home in Orange County,
California. But in early June, she says N.M. was transferred away from that
detention center to Krome.
"When he called me from Krome, he said that Africans were coming in from all
over the country - everywhere," DeYoung recalled. "He continued to call
saying, 'please help us, please help us, they're going to deport us on
Tuesday.'"
According to DeYoung, the conditions that N.M. was subjected to at Krome
were "nightmarish, like something out of a movie."
"He said two people were given injections and put into wheelchairs. He saw
somebody rolled up and tied into a canvas and put into the plane. Some of
them were pepper sprayed and I didn't get a clear answer on that on how and
why they were sprayed," DeYoung said.
ThinkProgress was unable to verify DeYoung's disturbing account of abuse,
but it tracks with some of the allegations of physical abuse documented in
numerous lawsuits brought against the Department of Homeland Security, the
federal agency that oversees immigration enforcement.
The national spotlight typically isn't focused on black immigrants from
African and Caribbean countries. In the conversation about deportation, it's
often exclusively portrayed as a Latino issue.
But deportation is part of the reality of the black immigrant experience.
According to forthcoming report by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration
(BAJI) and New York University Law School's Immigrants Rights Clinic, black
immigrants make up 7 percent of the total immigrant population (roughly 3.4
million people) and 10.6 percent of all immigrants in removal proceedings
between 2003 and 2015. In the 2014 fiscal year, the ICE agency deported
1,203 African immigrants.
"One of the challenges that we at BAJI face in our work is that black
immigrants from Africa and the Carribean, are largely 'invisible-lized' in
the public's consciousness, so the face of the immigrant is often a Latino
face," Carl Lipscombe, policy and legal manager at Black Alliance for Just
Immigration, told ThinkProgress. "Largely these immigrants are in
deportation proceedings as a result of a criminal conviction, or some sort
of criminal contact. And that can be anything from possession of a small
amount of marijuana to petty larceny, some sort of theft of something of
little value. Any of those types of offenses can result in someone being
detained or deported."
Since 1996, many immigrants with minor criminal convictions have been caught
up in civil deportation proceedings thanks in large part to a pair of
legislation known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act (AEDPA). These federal laws made it mandatory for immigrants to be
deported after they serve out prison sentences if they had been charged with
aggravated felonies, as well as expanded the list of crimes that qualify as
aggravated felonies.
Racial factors contribute to black immigrants coming into contact with the
criminal justice system in the first place.
"[Black immigrants] tend to live in urban areas," Lipscombe said. "They tend
to live in lower-income areas and they tend to live in neighborhoods that
are heavily policed for whatever reason. As a result of policy, like 'Broken
Windows' or 'Stop and Frisk,' many black migrants -- like black Americans --
get arrested and end up with a contact with the criminal justice system at
some point in their lives, many at a young age."
Though the deportation of black immigrants likely won't stop, advocates are
hoping that people will begin talking about them as a group in the same way
that they are folded into other movements.
"When we talk about Black Lives Matter, that includes black immigrants and
black people worldwide," Lipscombe said.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
