New Year, Same Ask: UndocuBlack Statement on Green Cards in Building Back Better

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 6, 2022

Contact: Bethelhem@undocublack.org 

New Year, Same Ask: UndocuBlack Statement on Green Cards in Building Back Better

The UndocuBlack Network wants to make it clear that we have not wavered from registry being the morally right and just solution for our communities. Apart from being issued citizenship, green cards through registry is the only way to tangibly change the lives of 11 million undocumented immigrants. Contrary to unfounded skepticism, reinserting registry language into the Build Back Better Act (BBB) is also completely feasible.  The registry language has been preliminarily scored by the Congressional Budget Office and abides by the funding limits currently imposed. In fact, the House Judiciary Committee’s summary of the registry language noted it is as “billions of dollars cheaper” than amending Section 245B of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The UndocuBlack Network, along with our partners the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), the National Immigration Law Center, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) have a established a way forward for immigration provisions to be included in the Build Back Better bill language— with our strategy in the form of this joint memo. The memo outlines the procedural steps necessary to secure a pathway to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act and how to choose not to accept the Parliamentarian’s misguided and non-binding advice in the Senate. 

“The strategy is informed by Senate rules, but it also relies upon all Democrats in Congress working in unison to deliver justice to our communities. The Democratic party has the power to organize the Democratic Caucus and make this happen. They now need to show their will and commitment through taking on the strategy we’ve worked tirelessly to provide.”

—-Patrice Lawrence, Executive Director 

“It is critical now more than ever that the voices of the advocates committed to bringing true relief to our communities through green cards in registry are given the respect and amplification due. We kept immigration relevant in BBB through staying the course on parole and by not giving  into any temporary fix to over three decades of stagnancy on immigration progress. 

This work is not political chess to us.he lives of 11 million people are hanging in the balance. Whether we were born within these borders or not we are still people.

This is not a game to us and we are done with those in positions of power claiming to fight for us, but instead taking up space and treading over both our voices and our demands as impacted people and grassroots advocates.”

—Yoliswa Khumalo Hadebe, Director of Narrative and Media, DACA recipient.  

THE UNDOCUBLACK NETWORK (UBN), founded in 2016, is a multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people organizing their own communities and building power through advocacy, policy change, community wellness, and narrative shifting. UBN has chapters in New York City, the DC/MD/VA area, and Los Angeles, CA.

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UndocuBlack Network Speaks on Dismantling White Supremacy on the Anniversary of Jan 6 Capitol Attack

For Immediate Release 

Jan. 6, 2022 

Washington D.C.– The UndocuBlack Network today remembers the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The UndocuBlack Network team issued the following statement:

 “Jan 6,2021 was a stark reminder of the lengths white supremacists will go to maintain power and control. It was also a warning for elected leaders that regardless of political party, they must advance truth and justice, rather than peddling lies and misinformation. 

 “The occupation of the U.S. Capitol was a low point in American democracy. All elected leaders must come together to ensure accountability for all persons who entered the Capitol building, bringing mayhem and fear across the country. On the day of the white hate insurrection, Black and brown communities were left terrified of the streets of Washington, DC. As UndocuBlack we spent the day making sure our members got car services to take them safely home from work and school.

 “Inflicting terror and fear was the goal of the White hate insurrection as it always has been, from Klan parades in white sheets to burning churches---and still our people mustered up a continuous courage to keep fighting against hate.”

 “We must also tap into the courage of our ancestors that fought tooth and nail in the face of lynchings, beatings, enslavement, burning crosses, terrorist bombings of our sacred places of worship and neighborhoods. We jumped into the sea, dug tunnels, and revolted across plantations around the world.”

 “We fought Like hell then, we will fight now, we will fight always.”

 “It is not lost on Black undocumented folks, that the people who stormed the Capitol, and their apologists, are the same people challenging humane immigration policies. But hate should never be coddled and allowed to fester.” 

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Open Letter to the Congressional Black Caucus

November 30, 2021 

Dear esteemed members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 

For years, Black immigrants have expressed that immigration is a Black issue. That sentiment was true before the nation witnessed Haitian immigrants being beaten at the Southern border and it is true today. Immigrants across the African diaspora come to the United States seeking opportunity and safety, only to be met with hostility and hatred due to our skin color. Black immigrants face, at minimum, the dual challenge of being Black and immigrant. Black immigrants may also face the challenges that societal oppression based on gender expression and sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language differences, ableism, mental and physical illness, and so much more present. To say the least, we as Black immigrants are in a precarious position. 

As elected leaders and people intimately familiar with the Black experience in this country, the Congressional Black Caucus has a unique opportunity to stand up for what is morally right on behalf of Black immigrants who have made their lives in the United States. You also have a tremendous responsibility. You understand, perhaps as few others do, the anti-Black challenges that have ensnared Black people for centuries in this country. You understand the power of resistance. One of the reasons the Caribbean nation of Barbados, a former British colony, voted to become a republic and shuffle off its colonial past is because of the influence of the liberatory Black Lives Matter movement, a movement originating in the United States, co-founded by two Black Americans and a Black immigrant.  

We are coming to you all as our siblings in a long, protracted struggle. You have an opportunity to play a pivotal role in advancing permanent protections that could help Black undocumented people live full lives without fear. While the media focuses on the devastating plight of non-Black immigrants, Black immigrants are also constantly facing brutal conditions without adequate allyship from those within both the mainstream immigrant and Black civil rights movements in the U.S. To this end, it is imperative that the Senate reconciliation bill include the green card registry rather than relying on temporary parole. Most Black immigrants come here as adults and need protections that address their unique situations—the green card registry does just that.  

As persons deeply connected to the Black community in the United States, you understand better than most that Black pain is multi-faceted. For Black Americans, this has included persistent racial injustice manifested via police violence and criminalization, displacement and gentrification, education inequity, mass incarceration, healthcare disparities and discrimination, wage inequities, unemployment, and underemployment. For Black immigrants, this also includes criminalization of our immigrant status, displacement across land borders and seas, erasure of our unique Black identities, remnants of colonization, and labor exploitation. The common thread connecting our struggles is the hue of our skin and our shared battle against global anti-Blackness. Therefore, we understand that artificial borders do not ameliorate our shared struggle. We need national and global solidarity on this important issue. We desperately need the same level of camaraderie with the African diaspora that Black American leaders demonstrated during the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa, where Black American leaders pressured the U.S. government to divest from the evil of that oppressive system.  

Black Americans have historically understood their connection to all Black people across the African diaspora. We must acknowledge the salient differences of our experiences—some of our ancestors experienced enslavement and racism in the U.S., others of our ancestors experienced enslavement and colonialism in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and still others of our ancestors have been free from time immemorial. However, we must not let that difference necessarily divide us. Noted Black activists and intellectuals like Kwame Toure/Stokely Carmichael, Audre Lorde, Malcolm X, Harry Belafonte (all of Caribbean descent), and Maya Angelou, traveled to Ghana and convened with Miriam Makeba and other Black African thought leaders to unpack their shared experiences during the heyday of the global civil rights and Black Power political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the Harlem Renaissance’s most prolific Black artists were first-generation Black Americans, from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Many of the nation’s most vocal civil rights leaders and history makers, like Shirley Chisolm, Kwame Toure/Stokely Carmichael and Marcus Garvey, had roots in the Caribbean and elsewhere. They understood that we are one and our struggle for Black liberation will always be interconnected. We ask you, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to consider our rich history of shared struggle and beloved community. We ask you to be vocal about the struggles of Black undocumented people in the U.S., many of whom toil tirelessly alongside Black Americans trying to make this country what it claims to be. We at the UndocuBlack Network believe in transformational solidarity. We look to you to ensure a pathway to citizenship passes through Congress in 2021, for Black immigrants and for all immigrants. We look to you for robust leadership and true partnership in this fight for Black liberation, and in all the fights to come. 

Sincerely, 

The UndocuBlack Network 

“To this end, it is imperative that the Senate reconciliation bill include the green card registry rather than relying on temporary parole. Most Black immigrants come here as adults and need protections that address their unique situations—the green card registry does just that.  ”

The UndocuBlack Network is Undeterred in the Ongoing Fight for Permanent Protection for Our People

Friday, Nov. 19th, 2021

Washington, D.C — Today’s passage of the Build Back Better Act in the House includes parole, a temporary relief provision that would last for five years and could be renewed once, up until September 30, 2031. But we at UndocuBlack are clear: Temporary solutions are not enough and the 2010 green card registry is the only option for Congress to deliver a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants this year.

Our communities have lived in limbo and uncertainty through flimsy, Band-Aid solutions to festering wounds, and parole is just a temporary salve in spite of our demand for permanency in this country. Our communities have waited for more than 30 years, keeping the country afloat during a deadly global pandemic and fighting through four years of constant attacks from the Trump administration. We have not reached this point in the fight for permanent protections to be handed anything less than green cards for our people. Our communities cannot afford to wait for another election cycle (or multiple) for Congress to open up a new, direct pathway to citizenship. 

For nearly six months, immigrant rights advocates have split up our resources, capacity, and strategy trying to meet urgent community needs while fighting for the rights of our communities to have permanent protection. The members of our immigrant communities who have been able to naturalize, U.S. born children of immigrants, and millions of Black and Brown people showed up to vote in record-breaking numbers during the 2020 elections, elections that placed a Democratic President in power and handed Democrats the majority in Congress. In exchange for our efforts, we demanded Democrats reject the xenophobic and racist agenda of the four years prior to honor the work, lives, and dignity of the Black and Brown people that placed them in power. 

“We at UndocuBlack are clear: Temporary solutions are not enough and the 2010 green card registry is the only option for Congress to deliver a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants this year.”

Instead, we have been met with the same tired tale from Democrats. We demanded the defunding of law enforcement, from the police to ICE and CBP. We demanded Democrats decriminalize immigration, to stop punishing our over-policed and over-incarcerated communities. We demanded a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who have been essential in keeping the United States on its feet during a global pandemic, people who lost family members, friends, loved ones, people who were unhoused, and yet received absolutely no federal aid. Yet, Democrats are once again choosing to operate as passive agents of white supremacy by refusing to act boldly. Democrats convinced themselves that because they were not providing exclusive interviews on Fox News and calling us criminals, rapists, and people from shit-hole countries, that they are somehow agents of change. They have the power to move the country forward, but they choose not to wield it. That is the height of cowardice.  

Because House Democrats have rejected a pathway to citizenship for paltry parole, threatened to cut immigrant access to government assistance programs, chosen to continue funding and increase funding for law enforcement, they have continued to manifest the politics of whiteness and the endemic racism that this country was founded on. The same government officials who were chastising Trump are now doing exactly what he intended to do: harming immigrants, poor people, and marginalized communities. *

Democratic leadership must use the power of their majority to do all it takes to keep the promises made to undocumented communities. It is now up to the Democrats in the Senate to reinsert the 2010 green card registry in the reconciliation bill, defend the pathway from anti-immigrant amendments, and make sure the bill passes through Congress. The UndocuBlack Network unequivocally opposes parole, and demands that green cards and a pathway to citizenship be passed through the Build Back Better Act. We will see it done on behalf of our communities.

Communities United for Status and Protection Letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to reinsert the 2010 green card registry provisions into the Build Back Better Act

November 9, 2021

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

United States Senate

322 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senate Majority Leader Schumer:

We, the undersigned organizations representing Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP), write to urge you to unite the Democratic Caucus to ensure that the 2010 green card registry provisions are reinserted into and protected in the Build Back Better Act in the Senate. 

Together, our organizations represent thousands of African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Arab/Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants across the country. Our communities have been counting on Democratic leadership to keep its promise of a pathway to citizenship this year. The undocumented immigrants that we represent are essential workers who have kept the country afloat and safe as the pandemic has raged on for nearly two years. They are long-term residents of the U.S., living in limbo with mere temporary statuses like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Our communities have made major contributions and sacrifices for this country and deserve nothing less than permanent residency, not more years of patchwork, temporary fixes like work permits and some protection from deportation. 

Senator Schumer, we believe in you. You have the power to unify the Democratic party and reinsert and protect the 2010 registry when the Build Back Better Act arrives in the Senate. Registry is the only viable option to deliver on the promise of a pathway to citizenship for our communities. Green cards keep families together, boost the economy, create jobs, and provide immigrants the stability and certainty they need to live freely as full members of our society. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of Americans support providing a pathway to citizenship to undocumented immigrants. Green cards help everybody.

Not only is registry the right solution for our communities, registry is also completely feasible in Congress. The registry language has been preliminarily scored by the Congressional Budget Office and abides by the funding limits currently imposed. We are confident a formal scoring by the CBO will reflect the same. In fact, the House Judiciary Committee’s summary of the registry language says it is “billions of dollars cheaper” than amending Section 245B of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Further, we have a vetted strategy in the form of this joint memo from the UndocuBlack Network, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), the National Immigration Law Center, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). The memo outlines the procedural steps necessary to secure a pathway to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act, and how to respectfully decline to follow the Parliamentarian’s advice in the Senate. The strategy is informed by Senate rules, but it also relies upon all Democrats in Congress working in unison to deliver justice to our communities. We know you have the power to organize the Democratic Caucus and make this happen.

Senator Schumer, our communities have fought relentlessly, for decades, for this moment. Democratic leadership pledged to do what it takes to turn this fight into a win through reconciliation. We urge you to deliver on your promise and to do everything in your power to reinsert and protect registry provisions in Build Back Better in the Senate.

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Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP) is a collaborative of grassroots immigrant community organizations working together to win permanent status for our members and communities, and build a more inclusive immigrant rights movement that centers the needs and experiences of African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Arab/Middle Eastern, and API immigrants. 

The UndocuBlack Network (UBN), founded in 2016, is a multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources and contributes to transforming the realities of our people so we are thriving and living our fullest lives. UBN has chapters in New York City, the DC/MD/VA area, and Los Angeles, CA. 

Adhikaar (Nepali: rights) is a New York-based non-profit, organizing the Nepali-speaking community to promote human rights and social justice for all. We are a women-led workers’ center and community center focused on workers’ rights, immigration rights, access to affordable healthcare and language justice.

African Communities Together (ACT) is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for our families here in the U.S. and worldwide. ACT empowers African immigrants to integrate socially, get ahead economically, and engage civically. We connect African immigrants to critical services, help Africans develop as leaders, and organize our communities on the issues that matter. 

Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies and provides  bond support and humanitarian, legal, and other social services, with a particular focus on Black immigrants, the Haitian community, women, LGBTQAI+ individuals and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. Since 2015, HBA has provided services to asylum seekers and other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, in U.S. detention, and during U.S. immigration proceedings. 

National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) is a national consortium of independent Arab American community-based organizations. The Network’s primary mission is to build the capacity of Arab American non-profit organizations that focus on the needs and issues impacting their local community while collectively addressing those issues nationally

UndocuBlack reflects on U.S. Anti-immigrant Brutality, Past and Present

After another week of enraging and disappointing immigration news, the UndocuBlack Network is heartsick but undeterred in our ongoing fight for justice for Black immigrants. The confluence of major immigration events over the past few weeks grounds our current advocacy in the lived realities of our Black undocumented community members, both past and present.

First, we continue to work closely with our Black immigrant family at the Haitian Bridge Alliance to push for a thorough investigation into the anti-Black abuses of Haitian and other Black immigrants at the border and in detention nationwide. We have been in multiple conversations with the Department of Homeland Security and we will keep pressuring the Biden administration to end the use of Title 42, investigate the abuses, and provide a right to return and protect Haitians and other Black migrants who survived or witnessed CBP’s unrepentant violence. Title 42 is a policy, backed by the CDC, that authorizes DHS to expel asylum seekers and other immigrants at the border because they are an alleged COVID-19 risk. Countless public health officials have debunked this theory, and the policy reflects the racist stereotype that immigrants carry disease--when we have seen how deliberately uncontrollable the spread of COVID-19 has been among U.S. residents.

Second, we thoroughly denounce the D.C. Circuit’s latest development in the Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas litigation to end Title 42 in the federal courts. On the very day a preliminary injunction was to go into effect, one which would prevent the Biden administration from illegally expelling families of asylum seekers under Title 42 while litigation proceeds, the D.C. Circuit--without legal reasoning or explanation--granted the government a stay. This stay allows the Biden administration to keep borders closed and to keep denying asylum seekers their legal right to apply for asylum until at least January 2022 when oral arguments begin, under the false guise of concern for public health. After last week’s events, the world now understands that thousands of asylum seekers affected by Title 42 are Black migrants. We continue to call for the immediate revocation of Title 42--just as Vice President Kamala Harris, daughter of immigrants, called for last year before she entered the White House. The Biden administration has always held the power to reverse this policy but it has instead cowered behind the power of the courts to force them to do the right thing. Now that the D.C. Circuit has refused to make the moral choice, will the Biden administration keep brutalizing and deporting the people it is obligated to protect?

Third, we acknowledge that September 30, 2021, was the 25th anniversary of the xenophobic and white supremacist Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). IIRIRA criminalized immigration writ large by laying the groundwork to categorize immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees as potential dangers to national security, long before the attacks on September 11, 2001. IIRIRA created sweeping new grounds for deportation that disproportionately affect Black and Brown immigrants, and those grounds of deportation plague our communities to this day. IIRIRA coincided with the meteoric rise of overcriminalization and mass incarceration of Black and Brown bodies in the 1990s. The legacy of IIRIRA is that of the criminal exclusions attached to nearly every modern immigration bill that leave our community members stranded far from protection, freedom, and stability.

Fourth, UndocuBlack decries the latest DHS enforcement guidelines. These guidelines were never going to be radical or revolutionary, but they also fall short of the just and humane immigration system President Biden promised on the campaign trail. These guidelines empower ICE officers to exercise their discretion to determine which immigrants pose threats to “national security,” “border security,” and “public safety.” The guidelines double down on calling all immigrants who make the desperate journey to the U.S. and who have crossed the border “illegally” since November 2020 threats to “border security.” The memo does nothing to eliminate detention quotas, which encourages DHS to capture and detain immigrants. We understand this coded language. Even with prosecutorial discretion being restored at DHS, we know such discretion without a radical, anti-racist culture change will lead to more Black immigrants being targeted for detention and deportation. This memo comes on the heels of a drastic rise in detained immigrants since President Biden took office and news about new private detention contracts. President Biden is not only failing to keep his campaign promises; he is purposely betraying the very communities he specifically vowed to protect.

These seemingly disparate events anger us, but they also reinforce our firm belief at the UndocuBlack Network that immigration is a Black issue. At every turn, we see the urgent need for racial and migrant justice for our communities. These issues also reinforce the responsibility of Congress to pass a true, clean pathway to citizenship for undocumented people in this country through the reconciliation process right now. Congress must not abandon immigrant youth, TPS holders, DED holders, essential workers, and farmworkers at this time, during this onslaught and attack on our undocumented communities. UndocuBlack will continue to work with our partners to hold the United States Congress and the Biden administration to account if they do not deliver on their promises.

The UndocuBlack Network holds our Black immigrant family close at all times, and we are grateful to remain in the collective fight for liberation.