Beyond erasure: Anti-Black racism in U.S. immigration

The U.S. immigrant population has significantly increased to 14.3%, a nearly threefold rise from 4.7% in 1970. Over the past two decades, under three different administrations, federal immigration policies have undergone rapid changes under different administrations. For instance, the Obama administration established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while simultaneously expanding the Secured Communities Program, leading to record numbers of deportations. The Trump administration implemented highly restrictive policies, including the “zero tolerance” immigration policies, limited eligibility criteria for asylum seekers, and bans on individuals from Arab and Muslim countries, which further cemented xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism. States have also been active in immigration, passing numerous laws that regulate law enforcement practices and access to public benefits such as employment, housing, and health care. Immigration remains a critical political issue with ongoing questions and concerns.

Despite extensive media coverage on incidents in heavily Latino, immigrant-dense cities like Los Angeles and New York City responding to the belligerent and inhumane practices by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and the National Guard, news outlets rarely report on how Black immigrants are disproportionately harmed by exclusionary immigration policies and are continuously erased from the broader immigration discourse. This erasure occurs even though the Black immigrant population has significantly increased over the last three decades. Since 2010, the number of immigrants in Michigan has increased by 16.1%. In 2023, about 6.3% of the total immigration population in Michigan identified as Black. Repeatedly erasing Black immigrants from immigration discourse can result in inadequate protection for them.

The U.S. immigration system is deeply entrenched in white supremacist and anti-Black racism. As immigrants enter the U.S., a country with a history of racializing its own population, their immigrant status inherently assumes a racial category, which then influences their experiences of citizenship and integration. The categorization of immigrants based on their race and country of origin has historically driven restrictive immigration policies. Examples include the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, whose legacy became quite prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic when many Asian Americans faced increased susceptibility to hate crimes and exclusion from COVID-related services. Another instance is President Trump’s use of “shit hole countries” to refer to the majority of African and Caribbean nations, perpetuating harmful stereotypes that vilify Black communities.

Last year, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) led an investigation that showed ICE misreports racial and ethnic data from detention records and accused the agency of doing so in order to avoid accountability for their disparate treatment of Black immigrants. Between 2003 and 2015, Black immigrants accounted for over 10% of immigrants in the removal process, even though they represent only 6% of the total undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. Certain immigration policies, such as the federal 287 (g) programs, which allows law enforcement to transfer immigrants they detain to ICE, disproportionally police Black immigrants, with many ending up on ICE custody for minor offenses and sometimes without legal counsel. Furthermore, Black immigrants are also more likely to be denied asylum, serve longer sentences, and placed under solitary confinement. In 2020, reports of mistreatment of Cameroonian asylum seekers in ICE detention centers were made public, detailing instances of racial discrimination, medical neglect, and excessive force. Despite protests and hunger strikers, ICE deported hundreds of asylum seekers back to native countries, where many faced either immediate arrest or death. Haitian immigrants have also been brutalized by immigration enforcement along the border in Del Rio. Investigative journalism captured images of Border Patrol personnel whipping Haitian immigrants and collected testimonies from those attempting to cross the Rio Grande, yet no Border Patrol personnel was held accountable. These hostile practices shaped by punitive immigrant laws, contribute to perceptions among immigrants of being constantly surveilled by the police and ICE, resulting in feelings of anxiety, depression, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among immigrants.

While critiquing the Trump administration’s stringent immigration policies is important, it is as crucial to recognize and acknowledge that the immigration system, regardless of who is president, has been and continues to be inherently racist. To address this systemic issue, states must implement policies that combat the over-policing and criminalization of Black immigrants and end programs that merge law enforcement with ICE. As a collective, there is a responsibility to uplift the voices and unique experiences of Black immigrants by building meaningful and trusting relationships with Black migrant communities and coalitions. Every level of our government must be involved in dismantling systemic racism within the immigration system, and it is our collective moral responsibility to hold them accountable.

Ira Memaj, MPH, is a public health educator and researcher on health policy and sexual and reproductive health rights based in New York City.