Migration is an intersectional issue that touches upon many issues: anti-Blackness, the carceral state, poverty, oppression, the ongoing impact of colonialism, gender based violence, LGBTQI+ discrimination, and beyond. We believe in a comprehensive approach to advocacy at the local, national, and international level. Our motto is Anpil Man, Chay Pa Lou, a Haitian proverb that means many hands make the work light. So we often work in coalition with partners to amplify our work and participate in numerous campaigns to end nefarious policies impacting the many facets of migration. 

Immediate Policy Recommendations to Dismantle Anti-Blackness in the Immigration System

  • End Title 42 and open the border to receive and process claims for asylum and other protections.
  • Halt deportations to Haiti, Cameroon, and other Black countries seeking TPS during this time, as these countries cannot safely receive and protect deported families and individuals.
  • Designate/redesignate TPS or grant DED for Ethiopia, the Bahamas, Mauritania, Guinea, Nepal, Sudan, South Sudan, and Sierra Leone.
  • Provide a pathway to permanent residence for undocumented immigrants and those with TPS, particularly essential workers and farmworkers.
  • Reprioritize the Haitian Family Reunification Parole (HFRP) Program and send invitations to Haitian families to participate.
  • Change Haiti’s redesignation date for TPS and grant DED to Haitians who entered the U.S. after the current July 29, 2021 eligibility date.
  • Prioritize language access for BIPOC communities— particularly indigenous, Haitian, African, and other immigrant communities, which is critical to ensuring fairness and effectiveness in removal proceedings. EOIR should establish a path consistent with the DOJ Language Access Plan.
  • On the current investigation of the mistreatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio now being led by the CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), the Secretary should direct the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to reconsider its decision not to investigate and to evaluate whether OPR has the will or capacity to deliver accountability.
  • Formally end the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs and phase out cooperation programs between federal immigration enforcement and local law enforcement, as Black migrants continue to be targeted and discriminated against in the immigration system.
  • Protect and support an increase to the diversity visa program, withdraw the Department of Justice’s appeal of Gomez v. Biden, and recapture the remaining approximately 40,000 unused diversity visas.
  • Work with advocacy groups to find practical solutions to Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness applications
  • Commit to providing legal counsel to all vulnerable people who need legal support to ensure a fair hearing.
  • Ensure accountability for forced sterilization of immigrant women, particularly Black women, and other grave human rights violations in detention centers. 
  • Review all immigration policies to determine if there are disproportionate impacts on BIPOC. 
  • Review the current roster of EOIR and Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) judges to determine bias and racism – specifically as it relates to the bail bond disparity between Black and non-Black migrants. Black immigrants continue to pay disproportionately higher bonds than other immigrants—as much as 54% percent more in the case of Haitians. 
  • Provide adequate medical care for asylum seekers in ICE custody – especially for infants being held in detention centers.

End Title 42

Since March 2020, the start of the Covid pandemic, the US has used the Title 42 policy as a false public health pretext to block asylum at US ports of entry and to expel migrants and asylum seekers to Mexico or their countries of persecution without access to the US asylum system or refugee protection screenings.  

Researchers have tracked more than 10,000 reports of rape, torture, kidnapping and other violent attacks on asylum seekers and migrants blocked in or expelled to Mexico due to Title 42, including the May 2022 murder of Jocelyn Anselme, a 34-year-old Haitian asylum seeker, who was killed in Tijuana while blocked from seeking asylum due to Title 42. 

We demand the immediate repeal of Title 42 and a halt of all expulsions under the policy.

Surveys in 2021 of Haitians blocked from US asylum protection due to Title 42 found that 61% reported being the victim of a crime while in Mexico, including kidnapping, rape, and robbery.

Migrant Protection Protocols AKA Remain in Mexico

Starting in 2019, the Trump administration used the Migrant Protection Protocols to force asylum seekers and migrants to await US immigration court proceedings in dangerous border regions of Mexico.

Black asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico faced particular risks because of their race and nationality, and were particularly targeted for violence, including kidnappings, murder, torture and rape. 

While the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the Biden administration had the right to end the program, dismantling the program and caring for those who were victims of this horrific policy is a tall order. 

HBA was an integral part of the coalitions formed to end MPP.

Family Detention

ICE has operated several family detention centers throughout the United States. While they have been empty as of July 2022, they have not been shut down, and they have a long history of anti-Black racism and poor conditions.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Black migrant families were disproportionately represented in these facilities. In the three months prior to the pandemic, our partner, RAICES, observed that 29% of the families detained at the Karnes County Family Residential Center in Texas were Haitian.

As the pandemic progressed, ICE released a number of non-Black families from Karnes but kept the Haitian families, and the share of Haitian families detained there increased to 44% of the total population.