November 9th, 2023
Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Hon. Alejandro N. Mayorkas
Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20528
Dear Attorney General Garland and Secretary Mayorkas,
The UndocuBlack Network and Communities United for Status and Protection write to urge you to take immediate action within your authority to safeguard undocumented immigrants residing throughout the United States, many of whom have called this nation their home for many years. These long-term undocumented immigrants, including those from African and Caribbean diasporas, contribute significantly to the cultural, social, and economic fabric of our communities. It is with great urgency that we request your support in providing relief to these individuals who seek stability, justice, and the opportunity to continue enriching our country.
While we continue our efforts to work with Congress in pursuit of lasting protections that immigrant communities need and deserve, we firmly believe that the Biden administration can and should do more administratively to make progress in this critical area. Several prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus and leading Civil Rights Groups have recently written to the administration, echoing our calls for you to explore a range of policy solutions that offer stability and security to our communities. As you know, chief among the issues that continue to demand immediate attention is the matter of designations and redesignations of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for African and Caribbean diasporas residing in the United States from countries that remain unsafe, and we implore you to address these pressing concerns.
But today, as we advocate for you to explore an array of administrative policy solutions to protect immigrant communities, we draw your attention to another administrative tool the administration should leverage: process reforms to a form of relief known as non-LPR cancellation of removal (cancellation of removal). We wholeheartedly support the notion – we first saw articulated in a May 31, 2023 letter to the administration by a group of Senators – that reforming this existing relief mechanism is crucial to making it more accessible to a broader range of applicants with compelling cases who meet its strict eligibility requirements. Indeed, the Black immigrant population in the U.S. represents the fastest-growing immigrant group, having increased by 475% over the last 40 years.[1] Today, over one-fifth of America’s Black population consists of either foreign-born individuals or second-generation Americans.[2] Among them, approximately 600,000 are undocumented Black immigrants, many of whom have built significant ties to this country as long-term residents.[3] As their connections and contributions to our country deepen, tools like non-LPR cancellation of removal will grow in significance for our communities.
In addition to these critical process changes, we urge you to provide clearer guidance on the conditions and factors that can be taken into account for evaluating hardship determinations to qualifying relatives regarding cancellation of removal. Of particular importance to our communities is the consideration of home country conditions, a factor that has also characterized much of our advocacy around TPS designations and redesignations. Many members within our networks face deportation to countries plagued by dangerous conditions, including civil wars, humanitarian crises, and public health emergencies. In these situations, their U.S.-born children or spouses may face the agonizing choice between family separation or accompanying their undocumented loved ones to these perilous destinations, further upending their lives. We strongly advocate for significant weight to be given to these circumstances as it relates to hardship imposed on qualifying relatives, especially in cases where the U.S. government itself has issued travel advisories or warnings to its own nationals. As these advisories are carefully formulated based on current intelligence, we believe such information should carry considerable weight in the cancellation of removal hardship analysis.
We strongly support these immediate measures to support undocumented Black immigrants, however, it's important to emphasize that our commitment extends to advocating for protections for all 11 million undocumented immigrants. While cancellation of removal is a significant progress, our goal is to ensure that every undocumented person in our country receives the protection and opportunities they deserve.
Thank you for your attention to this issue, which is of great importance to our communities. We were pleased to see that your Departments are considering proposals to streamline access to cancellation of removal relief, and look forward to engaging with you further on this matter.
Sincerely,
The UndocuBlack Network (UBN)
Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP)
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[1] Black immigrant population surges in U.S., Axios, https://www.axios.com/2022/02/01/black-immigrant-population-surging-in-us.
[2] One-in-Ten Black People Living in the U.S. Are Immigrants, Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/01/20/one-in-ten-black-people-living-in-the-u-s-are-immigrants/.
[3] Immigration is a Black issue, American Friends Service Committee, https://afsc.org/news/immigration-black-issue.
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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.
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 Asian immigrants. CUSP members are:
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. We organize the Nepali-speaking community to create broader social change; build coalitions on advocacy campaigns that address our community's needs; center women and the most impacted communities in our leadership; engage members in participatory action research; and implement community education, workplace development training, and support services.
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.
