The discussion brought a decades-long conversation about the impact of immigration on Black communities into the context of our nation’s present-day policy debates. Throughout the panel, experts referenced the 1924 Immigration Act, which drastically reduced immigration and thus provided increased job opportunities in Northern cities for Black Americans, spurring the Great Migration and improving the economic outcomes of Black Americans.

Beck contrasted this period with the state of the Black community in U.S. cities in the wake of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, underscoring how mass immigration has exacerbated economic problems, homelessness, and crime. "We know what low immigration will do because we have the history of 1924 to 1965," he explained.

Beyond harming Black Americans’ economic prospects, Wells suggested mass immigration policies since 1965 have contributed to issues such as fatherlessness and crime which are plaguing today’s Black communities. She stressed that support for illegal immigration is inherently anti-Black America – and contrary to the liberal narrative.

Today, there is growing discontent as many Black Americans are witnessing an influx of migrants in inner cities. During the panel, Jackson contends this is part of a strategy to deliberately take Black jobs and subsequently reduce their economic power. In cities such as New York and Chicago, Jackson explains how illegal immigrants are often better off financially than Black citizens, living “the American Dream that [Blacks] will never realize.” For all these reasons, she believes that Black Americans are growing increasingly opposed to mass immigration and are waking up to the injustices of U.S. immigration policy.

The Center’s panel made clear that mass immigration is overwhelmingly harmful to Black communities, as it leads to higher Black unemployment—and has serious downstream effects. Watch the full panel here: