Friend,

You may have seen the horrific images of Customs and Border Protection officers terrorizing Black Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The cruel mistreatment of families seeking safety has stirred people to outrage. And it’s highlighted the anti-Blackness that’s long been rampant in our immigration system.

Black people in my community and across the country have spoken up, calling on the Biden administration to treat Black migrants with dignity and to ensure more just, racially equitable immigration policies.

However, the administration has responded by ordering mass expulsions and forcefully deporting more than 7,000 Haitian migrants in the past month—back to the crisis that they had fled.¹

Sign now to demand that President Biden and his administration stop deporting Black asylum-seekers and hold Customs and Border Protection accountable for its abuses against Haitian migrants. We must ensure dignity and human rights for Black asylum-seekers.

Highlighting racism within our immigration system, the Associated Press recently determined that asylum-seekers from Haiti and other Caribbean countries—who are primarily Black—are granted asylum at the lowest rates compared to people seeking asylum from other countries.

In addition to facing greater barriers to entering the U.S., Black immigrants then face racist policing and over-criminalization within our country’s anti-Black criminal legal system. This puts them at greater risk for deportation with 66% of Black immigrants removed based on run-ins with police compared to 43% of all immigrants.²

Too often, Black immigrants’ stories are left out of the conversation about immigration. We can’t let that happen again. That’s why we’re uplifting the demands of a Black-led coalition organizing against unfair treatment of Black immigrants.³

We’re joining the call to demand that President Biden and his administration, particularly Secretary Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

• Immediately stop the expulsions and deportations of Black asylum-seekers.
• End the racist Trump-era policy known as Title 42, which violates human rights by immediately expelling asylum-seekers without any hearings. DHS Secretary Mayorkas claims he’s acting under the CDC’s orders, but scientists at the CDC have said that not only is Title 42 unnecessary, but it actually fuels COVID’s spread by locking up migrants in crowded detention centers.⁴
• Ensure the human right to asylum, including by granting humanitarian parole to all Black asylum-seekers. We have a legal and moral duty to provide hearings for people seeking refuge in our country.
• Hold Customs and Border Protection accountable for its abuses against Haitian migrants. I joined my colleagues in Congress demanding an investigation, and DHS Secretary Mayorkas pledged to investigate the abuse within a matter of days. But that was a month ago, and that promise has not yet been fulfilled.

We’ve got to ramp up the call to DHS Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden to defend Black migrants’ rights.

Sign now to demand humane, just, and inclusive immigration policy. It’s past time to uproot the anti-Black racism within our immigration system.

In solidarity and service,

Rashida