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Until We Are Free coalition calls on Biden administration to commit to racial equity via adopting human rights frame for immigration policy
August 3, 2021 — The Until We Are Free table, led by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), sent an open letter today to President Joseph Biden and his administration calling on Biden to honor his commitment to create a fair and humane immigration system by applying the mandates of his Racial Equity executive order to his immigration policy. The open letter specifically calls for the Biden administration to grant immediate humanitarian parole for all Black asylum seekers currently languishing on the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexican border; to end its reliance on categories of enforcement and instead adopt categories of protection; and to call for the removal of criminal carve-outs from all citizenship bills so that all immigrants have a clearer pathway, as well as other recommendations.
“The Biden administration has been saying that they want to have a fair and humane system and yet keep producing anti Black policies including the recent announcement that they will continue Title 42, an order that disproportionately impacts Black asylum seekers," said Nana Gyamfi, BAJI’s Executive Director "This administration doesn’t know how to develop immigration policy that aligns with racial equity. In this letter, we have laid out a blueprint on how to advance policies that support racial justice and are anti racist. You cannot be fair and humane and also anti-Black.”
The Until We’re Free table of frontline organizations and advocates is uniting to push back against the Biden administration’s racist and punitive immigration policies that criminalize Black immigrants and continue to devastate our communities. The table, convened by BAJI, includes a diverse group of racial justice and immigrant rights organizations and leaders, including Advancement Project | National Office, Alianza Americas, Black Immigrant Collective, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, Center for Constitutional Rights, Immigrant Justice Corps, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, and VERA Institute.
Please find the full letter here.
The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.