East Flatbush Townhall to Tackle Legal Plight of Black Immigrants to the U.S.

EAST FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A Nov. 16 townhall in East Flatbush will address some of the most pressing issues confronting Black immigrants to the United States, including recent findings showing they are disproportionately targeted for prosecution and deportation by U.S. immigration authorities.

The State of Black Immigrants Community Townhall will run from 6:00 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Mt. Zion Church of God Zion 7th Day, located at 203 E 37th St.

The event is free, and you can RSVP online now.

The townhall will feature remarks from five activists and academics working on a cross-section of issues impacting black immigrants:

• Benjamin Ndugga-Kabuye, a research and policy associate at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
• Imani Henry, the founder of Equality for Flatbush
• Ninaj Raoul, the executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
• And Juliana R. Morgan-Trostle and Kexin Zheng, students at NYU Law School

Staffers from Brooklyn Defender Services will also participate on the panel.

The townhall follows the recent release of a new report authored jointly by Morgan-Trostle and Zheng, both part of the New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, and Carl Lipscombe, a top staffer with BAJI.

The report's authors argue that "like African-Americans, Black immigrants experience disparate, often negative, outcomes within various social and economic structures in the U.S., including the country’s mass criminalization and immigration enforcement regimes."

Among the report's key findings:

• Blacks make up more than 20 percent of the non-citizens the U.S. government is seeking to deport on criminal grounds
• Black immigrants are disproportionately detained for criminal convictions when compared to the overall immigrant population
• And Black immigrants "are much more likely" to be deported for a criminal conviction than other immigrants

The report calls for the U.S. to "adopt policies that end the mass criminalization of Black and other marginalized communities, provide a safety net for Black immigrants, and address racial disparities in the immigration enforcement system."

Top photo courtesy of Michael Coghlan/Flickr