September 22, 2021
President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden:
As a group of the nation’s Black leaders of civil rights, racial and social justice organizations, we are writing to express our grave concerns about the treatment of Black Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico Border. We are hard-pressed in the year 2021 to find more horrific, traumatizing and blatantly racist images than those coming out of the Del Rio area. White (and white-presenting) men on horseback with lariats are seen chasing, yelling and cursing at vulnerable Black asylum seekers who have for weeks and months been fleeing toward what they thought was safety. The actions of these Border Patrol officers are disgraceful and show an indifference to the humanity of Black migrants.
Yet, it is not only the actions of law enforcement that is disconcerting. The decision last week to begin forcing Haitians onto planes to “return them home,” the very place that they were fleeing from, is inhumane. After admitting that Haiti was indeed a place too dangerous for these immigrants to return to, as evidenced by the granting of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) in May, we would have expected a dramatically different approach to this crisis. In fact, since that time conditions in Haiti have deteriorated with the assassination of President Jovenel and the earthquake in August that killed more than 2,200 people. This crisis requires more from our nation.
Your commitment to racial equity must extend to the treatment of immigrants. As such, we urge you to stop the deportations and immediately grant humanitarian parole to the thousands of Black asylum seekers and process their asylum claims without further delay. We also urge you to launch an investigation into the acts of Border Patrol agents in Del Rio and cease and desist the treatment we witnessed, instead employing a humanitarian approach to the crisis.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this urgent matter.
Signed,
Nana Gyamfi, Executive Director,
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director
Advancement Project National Office
Carlos Moore, President
National Bar Association
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, President & Chair
National Council of Negro Women, Inc.
Damon Hewitt, President & Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Derrick Johnson, President & CEO
NAACP
Marc H. Morial, President and CEO
National Urban League
Wade Henderson, Interim President & CEO
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Adrianne Shropshire, Executive Director
BlackPAC
Reverend Al Sharpton, President and Founder
National Action Network (NAN)
Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
Melanie L. Campbell, President & CEO
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable
Taifa Smith Butler, President
Demos
Fatima Goss Graves, President & CEO
National Women’s Law Center
Reverend Alvin Herring, Executive Director
Faith in Action
Maurice Mitchell, National Director
Working Families Party
Montague Simmons, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Movement 4 Black Lives
Rashad Robinson, Executive Director
Color Of Change
Cliff Albright, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Black Voters Matter
Vince Warren, Executive Director
Center for Constitutional Rights
Deidra McMcEachern, Board Member
National Conference of Black Lawyers
Barbara Ransby, Historian, Author, Activist
Bishop Leah D. Daughtry, Presiding Prelate
The House of the Lord Churches
Jotaka L. Eaddy, Convener
#WinWithBlackWomen
Dr Sonja Brookins, Environmental Advocate
Joanne N. Smith, President/CEO
Girls for Gender Equity
Farah Tanis, Co-Executive Director
Black Women’s Blueprint
Susan Taylor Batten, President and CEO
ABFE
Brittney Cooper, Professor, Author, Activist
Dr. Frances Richards
Holli Holliday, President
Sisters Lead Sisters Vote
Ethelind Baylor, Chair
Women In NAACP State of PA
Kendra Ross, Tech Executive, Cultural Worker, Organizer
Mary Forte, Community Activist
Latressa Wilson Alford, JD
L. Wilson Alford & Associates
Bernadette Norris-Weeks, Esq., Chair
Women of Color Empowerment Institute
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Ph.D.
Global Policy Solutions
Myra L Jackson, Founder
Global Freshwaters Summit
Chantel D. Mullen
Sisters Lead Sisters Vote
Jennifer Jones, President & CEO
KyJour International Strategic Business Solutions (KyJour International)
Courtney L. Hunt
Courtney L Hunt Coaching and Consulting
Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Director-Social Action Commission
AME Church
Crystal Hayling
The Libra Foundation
Gretchen Rohr
Open Society Policy Center
Joanne N. Smith, President/CEO
Girls for Gender Equity
Nat Chioke Willliams, Executive Director
Hill-Snowdon Foundation
Fatmata Barrie, Esq., Founder and Chair
Black Diaspora Voices
Bishop Marvin Zanders, Sr.
AME Church — 16th Episcopal District (Haiti)
Bishop E. Anne Henning-Byfield, President
Council of Bishops, AME Church
Bishop Adam J Richardson
AME Church — 10th District (Texas)
Helen Chin, President
Communities First
Rachel Green, Founder/CEO
Women of Color Coalition
Barbara A. Perkins, Founder/CEO
International Black Women’s Public Policy Institute
Sandi Cook, Organizing Director
SCLC of Southern California