In Celebration of Black History Month

Dear John, 

As we reflect this past February on Black History Month,  we want to shine light on our long-time partner, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

BAJI educates and engages African American and Black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice. NNIRR is proud to have supported BAJI’s formation (2006), and to work in partnership with grassroots leaders and organizations like them to bring an intersectional lens to the impacts of immigration deterrence. 

Tsion Gurmu’s (BAJI) article, “Combating Transnational Efforts to Detain and Deport Black Migrants Traveling to the US Mexico Border,” appears in NNIRR’s Spotlight Report on the Borderlands, and highlights the experiences of Black migrants at Mexico’s southern border. The article describes their harrowing journeys to the U.S. through Central and South America – crossing jungles and rivers while dodging militias and robbers. The journey is made even more traumatic by the anti-Black racism and human rights abuses endured at the hands of Mexican immigration officials in Tapachula, Mexico. This article further documents how the U.S. and Mexico stem the flow of “unwanted people,” specifically Black migrants, by turning borders into a site of dehumanization, criminalization, militarization, and state impunity. 

The Spotlight Report calls on U.S. policymakers, allies and advocates to champion bold policy changes to end human rights abuses, racial discrimination, and the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.- Mexico border.

Read more from BAJI’s latest report:

Externalizing Asylum: Evading Obligations, highlights how US policies avoid international obligations and criminalize migration into Central America.

Throughout Black History Month and beyond we honor and celebrate the monumental work of Black migrant leaders in our collective movement for human rights and justice for migrants and refugees.

More Black migrant-led organizing partners:

• UndocuBlack Network, fighting to create space for currently and formerly undocumented Black immigrants to not only survive but thrive. Read their Black History Statement calling on the Biden administration and policymakers to reject harmful immigration policies.
• Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a San Diego-based organization dedicated to empowering Black immigrant communities from the Caribbean and Africa. They provide migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services. 
  • HBA Initiatives: 
  • Black Immigrants Bail Fund 
  • Cameroon Advocacy Network
• Priority Africa Network (PAN) is an Oakland-based non-profit that supports and advocates for Black immigrant communities in the Bay Area. 

Support NNIRR!

Every contribution makes a difference. We are deeply grateful for your solidarity and partnership.

Your contributions support NNIRR to:

• Advocate for immigration policy that centers human rights
• Lift up grassroots leadership, organizing, and advocacy
• Spotlight human rights organizing at the US-Mexico border
• Advocate for international migrant rights & human rights at borders
• Organize at the intersections of gender, climate justice, and migrant rights