Black Lives Matter Joining Fight Against Deportations

The Black Lives Matter Movement has released a structured list of platform demands and solutions, one of which includes “an end to the war on Black immigrants” and calls for the repeal of IIRIRA and AEDPA’s crime-based immigration provisions, an end to immigration raids, a moratorium on deportations, and access to counsel for noncitizens in removal proceedings before the immigration courts. These pieces by Fusion have reported on Black Lives Matter’s commitment to building alliances with the immigrants’ rights movement.

From Fusion:   “When you think about deportations and immigrants in detention it’s really under the banner of mass criminalization,” said Carl Lipscombe, who was involved in drafting the platform as a member of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), a racial justice and immigrant rights organization. “The issues impacting immigrants are the exact same issues that impact black people in the United States.”  A rising share of the U.S. black population is foreign-born, and they’re disproportionately impacted by many of the same issues facing Latino immigrants. Black immigrants are nearly three times more likely to be detained and deported as a result of an alleged criminal offense, according to the Movement for Black Lives…By advocating for the rights of black immigrants, Black Lives Matter is targeting the same system that detains and deports all immigrant groups. And that’s creating a real opportunity for synergy between Black Lives Matter and Latino immigrant rights groups to unite in a common brown-and-black front.”

-JKoh