Black Lives ‘Invisible-lized’
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 9th, 2016
Hello… and a good morning to everyone.
There are so many things happening in this world…many wonderful and many not so wonderful. In the midst of the not so wonderful, I work on having faith that people will do the right thing.
Sometimes I come across something that pulls at my heartstrings more than I anticipate, for whatever reason. Perhaps I’m just more sensitive at the moment of the read, or perhaps the writer has a way of speaking to me that just gets to me more than I expected.
This morning I read this write about the deportation of immigrants. I felt compassion for these men. They are alone, unsure of their future, straddling two places…one they would like to call home and one they may be deported back to, with no one to reach out to, many without friends and family.
And then I felt anger after reading the inhumane treatment these men had to endure. Being treated like animals (Not that I feel it is OK to treat animals this way either) instead of the human beings that they are.
From Think Progress:
The Mass Deportation Of Black Immigrants That You Haven’t Heard About
A repatriation flight carrying 80 immigrants to their home country in 2012. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MATT YORK
Last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency quietly deported dozens of African immigrants who were trying to seek asylum in the United States.
Sixty-three men who were unable to secure visas to stay in the country legally on humanitarian relief claims, according to a source within ICE who spoke to ThinkProgress on condition of anonymity. Activists who spoke with deported individuals said they were sent back to Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.
Immigration activists believe that number may be closer to 90. They also say many of these men shouldn’t have been targeted by ICE in the first place because they had already passed their credible fear interviews — a preliminary step in the asylum process to determine whether immigrants would be placed in grave danger if they’re returned to their home countries.
Some lawyers say that black immigrants have the odds stacked against them in the immigration court system. ICE generally requires immigrants to have a sponsor who’s a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. The agency also has stringent requirements for identity documents, which is problematic for immigrants from countries like Somalia where the government didn’t always have the ability to issue those documents, according to Jessica Shulruff Schneider, a supervising attorney at the Americans for Immigrant Justice.
“Many of the individuals that are Africans don’t have close family members or friends to assist them from the outside,” said Shulruff Schneider. “It makes it virtually impossible to fight your case.”
One man deported back to Ghana, who asked for his name not to be published, did have that kind of support. He had a sponsor in the United States ready to take him in. Nonetheless, an immigration judge threw out his asylum claims and deported him from the Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida.
He’s just one of many African immigrants who began appearing at the Krome Detention Center in the weeks leading up to their deportation around mid-June. Activists like Ellen DeYoung, a volunteer with the immigrant detention center visitation group Friends of Orange County Detainees, quickly noticed this troubling trend.
Immigrants are flown back to their home countries on repatriation flights. CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt York
DeYoung had been visiting an immigrant detainee from Ghana who wants to be identified only as N.M. since last summer as part of a visitation program to prevent detainees from feeling isolated near her home in Orange County, California. But in early June, she says N.M. was transferred away from that detention center to Krome.
“When he called me from Krome, he said that Africans were coming in from all over the country — everywhere,” DeYoung recalled. “He continued to call saying, ‘please help us, please help us, they’re going to deport us on Tuesday.’”
According to DeYoung, the conditions that N.M. was subjected to at Krome were “nightmarish, like something out of a movie.”
“He said two people were given injections and put into wheelchairs. He saw somebody rolled up and tied into a canvas and put into the plane. Some of them were pepper sprayed and I didn’t get a clear answer on that on how and why they were sprayed,” DeYoung said.
ThinkProgress was unable to verify DeYoung’s disturbing account of abuse, but it tracks with some of the allegations of physical abuse documented in numerous lawsuits brought against the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that oversees immigration enforcement.
The national spotlight typically isn’t focused on black immigrants from African and Caribbean countries. In the conversation about deportation, it’s often exclusively portrayed as a Latino issue.
But deportation is part of the reality of the black immigrant experience. According to forthcoming report by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and New York University Law School’s Immigrants Rights Clinic, black immigrants make up 7 percent of the total immigrant population (roughly 3.4 million people) and 10.6 percent of all immigrants in removal proceedings between 2003 and 2015. In the 2014 fiscal year, the ICE agency deported 1,203 African immigrants.
Black immigrants from Africa and the Carribean (sic), are largely ‘invisible-lized’ in the public’s consciousness.
“One of the challenges that we at BAJI face in our work is that black immigrants from Africa and the Carribean (sic), are largely ‘invisible-lized’ in the public’s consciousness, so the face of the immigrant is often a Latino face,” Carl Lipscombe, policy and legal manager at Black Alliance for Just Immigration, told ThinkProgress. “Largely these immigrants are in deportation proceedings as a result of a criminal conviction, or some sort of criminal contact. And that can be anything from possession of a small amount of marijuana to petty larceny, some sort of theft of something of little value. Any of those types of offenses can result in someone being detained or deported.”
Since 1996, many immigrants with minor criminal convictions have been caught up in civil deportation proceedings thanks in large part to a pair of legislation known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). These federal laws made it mandatory for immigrants to be deported after they serve out prison sentences if they had been charged with aggravated felonies, as well as expanded the list of crimes that qualify as aggravated felonies.
Racial factors contribute to black immigrants coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place.
“[Black immigrants] tend to live in urban areas,” Lipscombe said. “They tend to live in lower-income areas and they tend to live in neighborhoods that are heavily policed for whatever reason. As a result of policy, like ‘Broken Windows’ or ‘Stop and Frisk,’ many black migrants — like black Americans — get arrested and end up with a contact with the criminal justice system at some point in their lives, many at a young age.”
Though the deportation of black immigrants likely won’t stop, advocates are hoping that people will begin talking about them as a group in the same way that they are folded into other movements.
“When we talk about Black Lives Matter, that includes black immigrants and black people worldwide,” Lipscombe said.
*****
Readers: Are you familiar with this happening? My wish is for those that don’t have a voice, or experience that their voice is not heard, they get to have their day too.
I don’t know enough about it but my gut tells me this perhaps has to do with the republicans having control of Congress and a lack of funding in this area. (Homeland Security)
Thoughts?
Blog me.
Joseph: Yes, a small price to pay considering how much O’Reilly brings FOX. Still, I despise men getting away with sick behavior with such little repercussions. In May of this year O’Reilly planned to sue his ex-wife whom he also accuses of having an affair while they were married.
O’Reilly eventually lost custody of his two children as the result of his divorce, due in part to allegations that he had been violent with his ex-wife on at least one occasion. Leaked documents cited by the Washington Times described an incident witnessed by O’Reilly’s daughter in which he allegedly dragged his wife down the stairs while holding on to her by the neck.
Why am I not surprised?
Eric: Oh…your comment made my day. I’m so excited you adopted from a local shelter – big kudos to you and your family! How lucky the little love has a new mom and your mother has a little one to look after. A perfect union. 👩🏻+🐶 =❤️
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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August 9th, 2016 at 1:06 pm
I am a white guy with several black friends who were deported simply because they were black. None of my white friends have been deported.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:09 pm
ICE is controlled by a racist white element.
They look the other way when the immigrant is from the Baltics or some other white country.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:11 pm
Why should America take a chance on anyone coming from north or south Africa. They are all niggers one way or another. So that means if they aren’t looking to get on welfare, they are looking to harm us.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:13 pm
When I represented my first black deportee, I was told by cops working for ICE that no decent white woman would be seen working with so many N.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:14 pm
Islam is a dangerous religion. We need to show NO tolerance for it or those who practice it.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Unfortunately for Obama the republican controlled Congress control who he can appoint to those agencies and how much money they have to do their jobs.
If those of you who come off so disturbed by what is happening had been a little more involved during the mid-term elections, many of these problems would be resolved.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:20 pm
Let’s get out to vote for Hilary and the rest of the Democrat ticket.
She needs coattails.
Without control of the Senate she will be severely restricted as to whom she can appoint to SCOTUS.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:22 pm
Ira#6, I agree 100%. These millennials have a very short attention span. They need to stay focused long enough to make political progress in the mid-term elections, too.
August 9th, 2016 at 1:27 pm
Did anyone see the 19 year old American swimmer call out the cheating Russian?
I don’t understand why the media didn’t pick it up and run with it.
What are we afraid of the Russians, now?
August 10th, 2016 at 7:18 am
President Obama tried to revise the administration’s deportation policies, but have blocked him on every attempt.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:25 am
Me, my opinion is let’s get started on raising deportation efforts and deporting more women and Asians that are here illegally.
That way the %’s will better balance out and not be so unfair.
Legal immigration = good
Illegal immigration = bad
August 10th, 2016 at 7:25 am
This data is all from the Department of Homeland Security. Some data sources are linked in the original piece, but all the data you need is here: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/st… and here: http://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigrati…
If you don’t want to go into detail yourself, here are some Department of Homeland Security numbers to consider:
According to Department of Homeland Security estimates, about 8.9 million unauthorized immigrants in 2011 were born in North America (which includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Canada). About 1.3 million were from Asia, 800,000 from South America, 300,000 from Europe, and 200,000 from the remaining parts of the world.
In 2013, 438,421 people were removed. Of these, only 2,933 were removed to Asia and 2,009 to Europe.
In 2013, 691 were removed to China. In 2011, there were 280,000 undocumented Chinese living in the United States.
There were 380,000 undocumented Hondurans in 2011. In 2013, 36,526 Hondurans were removed.
You can do the calculations yourself, but you will see that undocumented Hondurans have a much higher chance than the Chinese of being deported. You will find similar ratios for each Latin American and Caribbean group.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:27 am
It’s a no brainer why so many men get removed than women. Men are clearly convicted of more crimes than women. That also goes somewhat by race too. A much higher percentage of Hondurans were removed for crimes than Chinese.
There are other factors that may not be as evident. Latinos tend to work in construction and agriculture in many parts of the country. Chinese tend to gravitate towards sanctuary cities like San Francisco where deportation is rare.
One cannot just look at the raw numbers and make those type of conclusions without taking other factors into consideration.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:28 am
Conveniently there is not a mention of Hillary’s Honduran coup, right Michelle?
“Hillary Clinton’s Real Scandal Is Honduras, Not Benghazi”
“What beats me is why more Democrats aren’t deeply troubled by the legacy of Clinton’s foreign policy blunder in Honduras.
Maybe you’ve forgotten what happened in that small country in the first year of the Obama administration — more on that in a moment. But surely you’ve noticed the ugly wave of xenophobia greeting a growing number of Central American child refugees arriving on our southern border.
Some of President Barack Obama’s supporters are trying to blame this immigration crisis on the Bush administration because of an anti-trafficking law George W. signed in 2008 specifically written to protect Central American children, which preceded the uptick in their arrivals. But which country is the top source of kids crossing the border? Honduras, home to the world’s highest murder rate, Latin America’s worst economic inequality, and a repressive, U.S.-backed government.
When Honduran military forces allied with rightist lawmakers ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, then-Secretary of State Clinton sided with the armed forces and fought global pressure to reinstate him.”
http://fpif.org/hillary-clintons-real…
August 10th, 2016 at 7:31 am
Our open borders Immigration policy is short-term oriented
and very selfish…
I have been studying population and environmental issues for
over 25 years and have come to believe that for the US, for other countries,
and for the world – the most humane and environmental tact is to HELP PEOPLE
WHERE THEY ARE – not to encourage them to migrate.
Migration to the US increases our own very unsustainable and growing population
level with its devastating local and global environmental impacts, relieves us
from training and hiring our own many low wage workers, takes pressure off of
source countries to deal with their own population growth and related economic
problems, and draws away from those countries the very people who are most
likely to be leaders in their native lands to help improve conditions. Some
countries have asked us, in fact, to better enforce our laws to help them
better their own conditions. We must set an example and stop being selfish.
Population is the great multiplier!
Don’t be a deep feeler and a poor thinker. – George C. Marshall, winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize, 1953.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:32 am
I hope that those immigrants who’ve worked so hard to survive and build a new life here in the USA, will get out and vote like they’ve never voted before, and put this Congress on its ears, demanding the Congress deal with Reforms that will actually work to stop the harassment of these people who do all they can to stay within the law, and to build a good future for themselves and their families.
This nation has tried often to support hard working, dedicated men and women. It is too sad what is going on and how many lives are being damaged by hatred, bigotry, racism, and the attacks upon all the workers in this country. Too sad.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:33 am
Michelle, let me make sure I have this straight. You’re disappointed because Obama isn’t rushing to overrule the duly elected members of Congress, and deal with a problem that has in fact become bigger under his leadership, and you’re also surprised that his failure to do what he said he was going to do is politically motivated. But … you still think he’s a great guy and a good president? And that’s why you’d actually like him to forget about Congress and just make like a king?
August 10th, 2016 at 7:34 am
Bob, Let me make sure I have this straight: GOP supporters simply make sh*it up, right? For Obama to “overrule the duly elected members of Congress”, they’d have to rule first. You can’t overrule what wasn’t ruled upon.
Our system of governance allows for executive decisions. If you don’t like it, that’s frankly tough.
August 10th, 2016 at 7:38 am
Hafa adai, how many times have I told you the catholic church is a sick cult that debases women and rapes young boys.
Guam priest ‘took photos of 50 altar boys’
Wed 10 Aug 2016
By Aaron James
A lawyer representing child abuse victims in the US has told a hearing that a former priest abused more than fifty children while serving on the island of Guam.
David Lujan was speaking as victims gave testimonies at a hearing earlier this month which could make it easier for them to sue by reducing the statute of limitation – the amount of time allowed from a crime actually happening to a formal legal challenge in civil or criminal courts.
Mr Lujan accused Fr Louis Brouillard, now 95, of abusing and taking photographs of around 50 children during his ministry on Guam between 1948 and 1981.
Fr Brouillard has previously admitted to abusing children and is seeking forgiveness for his past crimes. He was never imprisoned or defrocked.
He now lives in Minnesota and receives a pension from the Church in Guam.
According to NY Daily News the former priest told the hearing: “I regret with all my heart that I did anything wrong to them.
“I am praying for the boys and hope that they can forgive me and that God can.”
============================
You have to ask yourself are all Roman Catholic priest butt rustling all the time?