Report — UNCOVERING THE TRUTH: Violence and Abuse Against Black Migrants in Immigration Detention

Black migrants have been getting more attention lately.  A report UNCOVERING THE TRUTH:  Violence and Abuse Against Black Migrants in Immigration Detention looks critically at the treatment of Black migrants to the United States.   Here is a summary:

“Black migrants are subject to abuse and a disturbing pattern of racism, violence, and harm at disproportionately higher incidence than non-Black migrants while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to a groundbreaking report released in October 2022 by Freedom for Immigrants, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), and UndocuBlack Network.”

Amog the key “KEY FINDINGS”:

• 28 percent of all abuse-related reports made to the FFI hotline come from Black migrants, despite accounting for only only six percent of the total ICE detention population; 

• In detention facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, Black migrants are almost twice as likely to experience abuse inside detention compared to non-Black migrants; 

• Black non-binary migrants are 3.5 times more likely to experience abuse in immigration detention;

• A new FOIA request corroborated a previous study that found that 24 percent of all people in solitary confinement were Black, despite Black migrants accounting for only four percent of the total ICE detention population from 2012-2017; 

• Over 53 percent of the most high-intensity and life-threatening cases that FFI intervened on in the six year period were on behalf of Black migrants. 

Thanks to Nolan Rappaport for passing the report along to me.

KJ