Thread by @RAICESTEXAS

Happy #JuneTeenth2021! Let's take a minute to remember what this federal holiday symbolizes and the ongoing fight for freedom.

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, promising to free slaves in states controlled by the Confederacy if the Civil War was won.

After the war was won on April 9, 1865, the news of the promise began to be communicated across the Slave States of the Confederacy.

Texas was one of the most remote of these states, and the news of the liberation of slaves was suppressed until June 19, 1865.

June 19th being the date when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, more than TWO months later.

The reason for that delay?

Texas slave-owners saw the opportunity to exploit and complete one final crop harvest from their unpaid workers.

As we remember Juneteenth, we have to acknowledge that Black people in the U.S., including Black immigrants, are STILL fighting for freedom.
We must continue to fight until every chain is removed.

At RAICES, we have seen systemic racism in immigration & criminal justice spaces.

Black immigrant clients who speak indigenous languages are often forced to proceed in asylum interviews in their colonizers' language that they're not fluent in because it's presumed that they should know that language better than their own.

Their indigenous languages aren't respected or treated with the same respect as other indigenous speakers from Central America, who are not fluent or speak Spanish.

Most people in this country think of immigration as a brown or Latinx-only issue. Yet, that's far from true.

There are millions of Black immigrants in the U.S. including an estimated 619K undocumented Black immigrants, who’ve been excluded from the national conversation on immigration.

They’re just left out of the conversation.

They’re left out of the narrative.

So let’s clear up some misconceptions & give you facts.

- In 2019, although only 7% of non-citizens in the U.S. are Black, they made up 20% of those facing deportation on criminal grounds
- The longest ICE incarcerations are all for Black immigrants

- In 2019, almost half of the families incarcerated in detention centers are Haitian
- ICE locks up immigrants from African & Caribbean countries in solitary confinement cells 6x as often as the population at large
- In 2019, bonds for Haitians were 54% higher than average

- In 2019, ICE detained more people than ever before. As with the above number, this disproportionately affected Black immigrants

And don’t even get us started on Black immigrants seeking legitimate refuge through the asylum process.

The numbers speak for themselves. 👇🏽

Recently, of 84 families we worked w/ in Title 42, it's estimated that 66, or 79%, of them were Black.

Since April 2019, we have worked with at least 547 Black families & individuals, 16% of our total population.

- When working with single adult women, at least 4% were Black

- When working w/ single dads w/ sons, at least 16% were Black
- When working w/ full family units, at least 61% were Black
- When working w/ single adults, at least 49% were Black

The immigration system is rooted in anti-Blackness.
The fight for liberation will continue.