A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES
This piece is from our Black Initiatives Fellow, Nneka Okpara.
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Black immigrants exist at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities and remain invisible in public discourse, and in both migrant and Black-led movements. Thus, it is our job as advocates to highlight the mistreatment of black migrants in the system and root it out.
A BRIEF HISTORICAL RUNDOWN OF ENACTED IMMIGRATION LAWS
As a whole, immigration law in the United States as a well-defined concept in and of itself did not exist prior to the 1870s (though there did exist legislation governing who was considered a citizen within the United States, which was limited to “free White persons ... of good character”), and from the very beginning, it was a racist endeavor. The first legislative acts of its kind came about after a series of “Chinese Exclusion” cases. These were lawsuits that were brought against the government for its policies of trying to keep Chinese people out of America. This is when we see the Naturalization Act of 1870 which, for the first time, created a system of controls for the naturalization process (the act of becoming a US citizen) which extended the naturalization process to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent,” i.e. former slaves and descendants of slaves, but also created a system that kept people out of the United States and imposed penalties for those engaging in “fraudulent practices” in trying to obtain citizenship. Thus, we see the first time immigration from Africa was theoretically permitted (unlike non-white immigration from Asia).
In 1892, we saw the implementation of the Geary Act. Again, an Act targeting the exclusion of Chinese people and an expansion into the mechanisms of enforcement of immigration laws by creating the penalties of detention and deportation for those already here in the United States if they could not produce the paperwork required to show their permission to be in the US.
In 1921 and 1924, Congress enacted several laws that enforced “national origin” quotas on U.S. immigration (which remained in effect until 1965). The legislation effectively excluded African immigrants from entering the country as it limited immigration from any given country to a total percentage of the number of people from that country to live in the U.S. This number went from 3% in 1921 to 2% in 1924. In effect, the quota for immigrants from Africa (excluding Egypt) totaled to 1100.
The Immigration Act of 1952 was the first time all of immigration law was outlined into one body of text. Within this Act, the U.S. established a preference system that determined which ethnic groups were desirable immigrants and placed great importance on labor qualifications. The Act also defined three types of immigrants: 1. Those with “special skills”, 2. “average” immigrants, and 3. Refugees. A key provision in this Act also gave the President authority to issue a proclamation excluding all aliens or any class of immigrants or nonimmigrants or restrictions on entry that he may deem appropriate and necessary if allowing them in would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.
In 1965, the new Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 officially repealed national quotas and subsequently the U.S. saw a substantial increase in the number of immigrants from Africa.
Then in 1990 we saw another overhaul of immigration law in the Immigration Act of 1990, which created the Diversity Visa Program which created the “green card lottery” which allowed for people from countries with low admitted numbers of immigrants to the United States to enter into a lottery of 50,000 visas issued at random to people in those countries. Almost 38% of these visas were attributed to African born immigrants in 2016. This Act also created the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) visa that we still see heavily in use today. These visas are granted by the Attorney General to immigrants who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. The passage of this Act did see the increased admittance of immigrants to the U.S., more than any decade prior.
Of course, with comprehensive immigration reform that facilitates immigration to the U.S., there will always be backlash and demonization of those immigrants, especially Black and Latino immigrants. This backlash came in the form of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 which saw the addition of extremely harsh penalties for undocumented immigrants, all in the name of “improving border control”.
Although there have been more immigration laws and legislation enacted since 1990, the Act of 1990 was the last major overhaul of the national Immigration and Nationality Act. Reform is still badly needed today. The Biden Administration promised an overhaul but has not and many of the racist and punitive Trump era legislation have been left intact.
REAL WORLD APPLICATION OF IMMIGRATION LAWS TO BLACK IMMIGRANTS
With immigration law’s historic roots being steeped in racism, it is no surprise that as immigration law is practically applied today, it discriminates against the black immigrant population. Black immigrants continue to face unique anti-black challenges in immigration law. And this mistreatment is nothing new.
Black immigrants, much like African Americans, are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system, which often leads to deportation and detention. Consequently, although Black immigrants only represent 5 percent of the undocumented population in the United States, they represent more than 20 percent of immigrants facing detention and deportation on criminal grounds.
In speaking with Black immigrants about their experiences in the United States, as well as practitioners and community organization staff members, the overall consensus is that the United States still has a long way to go to create a truly just and equitable system of immigration laws that govern black immigrants (as well as others) both inside of the United States as well as those trying to come in.
A. Documented Black Immigrants in the United States: my personal experience
The experience of those black immigrants who are documented can and have been troubling because of anti-Black attitudes in this country. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, my parents immigrated to the United States, being granted entry on student visas to study. My mother originally had dreams of being a broadcast journalist, but her teachers told her that she needed to give up that dream because of her accent, that there was no way she would be able to get a job as a broadcast journalist in this country; if she wanted to do that, she’d have to go back to her own country. And that sentiment became all the more a reality to her when she took an internship at a small news outlet, when one of the duties she was tasked with was answering the phones. One day the owner of the studio called in and when she answered the phone and he heard her speak, he scolded her and demanded that she never answer the phone again due to her accent. It made her feel like she was nothing, like she was worthless. All simply for existing in this country as a black immigrant.
For many black immigrants, the racism and anti-black discrimination that they experience is a shock. They hear about racism in America, but are un- or underprepared for just how degrading, humiliating, and infuriating it can be. My father and other family members similarly experienced jarring anti-black sentiment, which continues to this day, when they first arrived. In college in the 70s, my father found that often his white classmates would have the same answers on a test as he did, yet they would receive a higher score than him, or if they worked on a project together, he would get no credit for the work he contributed. It was unbelievably difficult to find a teacher willing to write a letter of recommendation for his application to medical school. In fact, many were incredulous and questioned his dream of becoming a doctor. My uncle, an MIT graduate, experienced so much discrimination and was so undervalued at work that it drove him to quit his job because he couldn’t stand being made to feel like he was less than simply for being black and an immigrant.
B. Undocumented Black Immigrants in the United States
Being a black undocumented immigrant is oftentimes a double-edged sword. For Jubril Adelukun, it became a nightmare. Jubril entered the US on a tourist visa and fell out of status while preparing to file an asylum application. While on a trip to upstate New York, visiting a friend of his—also here on a tourist visa and similarly, a black immigrant— the two were profiled and pulled over by police as they were driving back to their hotel after lunch. The police detained them, falsely and without proof, accused Jubril’s friend of violating the terms of his tourist visa, and then called ICE to round them up for immigration detention. ICE took them to the Batavia Detention Center which is where Jubril’s years-long fight for freedom began. Jubril was in detention for over 25 months. While in detention, he witnessed firsthand the mistreatment of him and other black immigrants. As he put it, they are treated as if they are less than human; there is no allowance made for basic human dignity or respect. They are spoken to with disregard and disrespect, heavily shackled and shuffled from court to detention center, treated like dangerous criminals, while their health needs are actively ignored. They may even experience punishment by being put into solitary confinement in an intentionally freezing cold cell if they dare push back against officials and speak up to advocate for themselves or their fellow detainees. Many immigrants are taken to immigration court where a hostile and biased immigration judge presides over their case. In Batavia alone, 50% of the judges have under a 10% grant rate for asylum seeking cases. In Jubril’s experience, he was forced to move forward with his case, even though he was given no time to prepare and additionally was unrepresented by a lawyer. Many black immigrants are denied bond to get out of detention while their case makes its way through the system, as they are deemed untrustworthy flight risks or worse, a danger to the community. Even if they are granted bond, they are subjected to wearing ankle monitors and predatory bondsmen that force them to go into debt paying back bond loans.
C. Black Immigrants at the Border
Another racist Trump-era immigration policy, the effects of which still lingers on to this day, is the Migrant Protection Protocol program, or as it is more commonly known, the “Remain in Mexico” program. In 2019, in one of its many cruel and harsh efforts to curb migration into the United States at the Southern border, the Trump Administration threatened to enact severe tariffs against Mexico that would damage its economy if it did not do more to prevent immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. from actually reaching and entering the U.S.. They also insisted that Mexico accept back into its country many immigrants whose asylum cases were pending adjudication here in the U.S. In response, the Mexican president, Lopez Obrador, deployed the Mexican National Guard to the Mexican city of Tapachula to create what has essentially become an open-air prison. Currently, black immigrants are experiencing a disproportionate amount of discrimination and violence while they remain in Mexico with hopes to either move forward with the asylum process there or move on to the United States. In 2019 and 2020, more than 100,000 African and Haitian migrants were detained at Tapachula on their way North. And in 2019, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) learned that black migrants from Africa and the Caribbean were systematically being denied the exit permits they would need in order to leave and cross the U.S-Mexico border. Those working with migrants on the ground in Tapachula report that immigration officials prioritize migrants from Spanish speaking countries.
Black migrants complain they’re routinely targeted by police and immigration officials during nighttime roundups of unauthorized immigrants, leaving them terrified to go out after dark. When tensions build and the migrants protest this treatment, they are accused of being violent. Dozens of protests and demonstrations have broken out in Tapachula, and videos show the Mexican national guard using force against mostly Black migrants.
Because of this violent and discriminatory treatment, black migrants cannot work, cannot provide for themselves, nor can they even choose to leave the Tapachula to go elsewhere in Mexico due to the armed guards. Black migrants have no other choice but to wait anxiously for the day when they can leave the city. A day that seems like it will never come for them like it does for other migrants.
CONCLUSION
To many black immigrants, and others alike, America somehow still retains the reputation of being the land of promises, hope, opportunity, freedom, education, safety, equality and shot at a better life than the one they had in their home countries. And truthfully, Black immigrants have contributed significantly to the growth and diversity of the overall Black population in the United States. However, these racist immigration policies do their best to make sure that many black immigrants fall short of achieving what they set out to achieve. But resiliency, without question, is intrinsic to the spirit of the black diaspora. In order to make a more equitable system, we must work diligently to stamp out anti-blackness and the white supremacy that has been baked into the system of laws governing immigration from its inception.
