Understanding the biggest issues facing migrants and how they interact with racial justice goals

While migrants are not limited to a specific identity—including religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or race—migrant women and those of color face further discrimination and mistreatment. Almost half of all migrants identify as women or are women refugees at greater risk of experiencing violence despite potentially fleeing from it in their home country. The percentage of how much more likely they are to experience violence as women of color is even greater.

According to the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Black folks are not only more likely than other populations to get arrested, convicted, and imprisoned in the U.S. criminal enforcement system, but they are also more likely than others to get deported. According to a report released by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, “more than one out of every five noncitizens facing deportation on criminal grounds before the Executive Office for Immigration Review is Black.” When arrested, these immigrants are also more vulnerable to plead guilty, frequently resulting in ineligibility to reenter the U.S. Having often fled from countries of violence, these migrants are now at higher risk of abuse and even possible death upon their return.

Black folks are not only more likely to face discrimination and unjust deportation, but they’re more likely to be stopped at borders and questioned regarding their immigration status. Additionally, abuse against Black individuals in custody is rampant. Daily Kos reported multiple incidents of federal immigration and private prison officers abusing Black immigrants. In one incident agents and officers tortured men, leaving them with several broken fingers. Over the years, civil rights groups have filed numerous lawsuits and complaints against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies because of the use of excessive force, including physical abuse that has resulted in serious injuries.

But the horror doesn’t end there. Reports also found that ICE facilities performed unnecessary gynecological procedures, including hysterectomies, on detained women. According to the Associated Press, multiple women shared that they underwent procedures that they “never sought or didn’t fully understand.” Without consent, women of color held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia faced gynecological procedures including sterilization. At least 17 women were subject to this, Vox reported. In one incident a woman had her fallopian tube removed without consent while in another, a woman who was supposed to have a single ovary removed was subject to a total hysterectomy. According to Vox, this woman still wanted children.

Unfortunately, this isn’t even the first time such an allegation has been made against ICE. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ICE has been accused of not only unwarranted procedures but ignoring immigrants’ health, safety, and nutrition.

Each year, a large number of women and children flee violence in an attempt to migrate to safety. While these women flee conflict and abuse in their home countries, they are often subject to similar abuse as a result of stereotypes and discrimination against migrant women. Migrants who identify as women of color face not only racism and other obstacles on their journey but are more vulnerable to gender-based violence than other migrants. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in a survey half or more of the migrants who are women of color reported experiencing sexual assault or violence on their journey, with many having to take birth control to avoid pregnancy as a result of rape. Violence against women as a whole is an ongoing global phenomenon, and violence against women of color is even more prevalent.

The struggles and violence migrant communities of color face include not only barriers to access to necessary needs like health and safety, but systemic obstacles rooted in racism and discrimination. Black immigrants need support now more than ever, and ways to support the Black migrant community are not difficult to find. Even amid a pandemic, there are simple yet impactful ways you can support the community, whether it be organizing, funding those who organize, or supporting them by creating local awareness. Resources on how to be an ally and help the fight against racial injustice can be found here.