By A. Shaw and James Thompson

We are talking about race and the fight against racism.

Race seems to be short hand for all of us –the human race.

Race suggests some kind of totality among people.

Racism, on the other hand, necessarily implies segments of the race that are hostile towards one another.

So, racists are hostile segments of the people. For example, some racists hate all of the human race.

These are called misanthropes. Misanthropes hate and often want to destroy everybody. They often want to destroy the human race merely because members of the human race are human.

Other races hate and often want to destroy only half of the race.

These are called misandrists. They hate and often want to destroy boys and men simply because they are boys and men.

Another type of racist hates and often wants to destroy girls and women who constitute half of the race. These are called misogynists.

How can we fight the racism whether it aims to destroy the totality of the human race or the destruction of only the males or only the females?

Today, perhaps a doctor can give them a pill or an injection or lock them up or lie them on an injection table or hang them. In Texas, it is not feasible to electrocute all the racists because it would drain all the electricity. Texas administers so many lethal injections that it sometimes has to deal with shortages of the poison that it pumps into the veins of its people so it is not a viable option.

By the way, in the USA, a misogynist can become President and reside in the White House, Donald Trump.

At some point, it became obvious to even the racists that a racism based on gender was unsatisfactory. A gender based racism requires racists to destroy some of their parents and some of their siblings. So, the racists modified their racism to be based on color more than on gender in order to protect their kinfolk.

The racists then imagined that there is a multiplicity of racists based on color chiefly of the skin. The racists thereby discovered blacks, whites, yellows and later on during the latter 19^th and 20^th centuries, browns and reds.

Initially, the division of humanity consisted of blacks and whites. Later on the racists added the yellows. The prevalence of these sexual mixtures (miscegenation)made it difficult to determine whether an individual was this color or that color. Sometimes blacks who look like they were white insisted that they were black. Vice versa, sometimes whites who look like they were white insisted they were black. When the yellows entered the mixture, the problem of determination of racial identity grew more complex and hopeless. Nobody could tell whether somebody else was white or black. Among the whites, people discovered that other whites were the principle foe, for example, yellow haired and blue eyed people who were white hated some other people who did not have yellow hair and blue eyes even though they were white. So clearly color was an inadequate basis for racism.

In order to fight racism progressive people fought a legal struggle-both judicial and legislative-in which laws were passed to prohibit racist acts called discrimination, e.g. in the USA the civil rights act in 1964 and the voting rights act in 1965. The state in the USA mildly enforced these legal measures against racism over the last 50 years but the state in the USA did not enforce these anti-racist laws with the vigor to eradicate racism.

Around the middle of the 19^th century the form of racism based on skull shape became popular among the intelligentsia and almost replaced color based racism.

Skull based racism known as phrenology became popular, advocating that there was a relationship between skull shape and psychological characteristics. Almost all phrenologists insisted that non-whites lacked the kind of skull shape that results in the development of strong and smart individuals.

People relied on other scientists to debunk the non-sense of the phrenologists and after the defeat of the Nazi racists who were enthusiastic phrenologists, people widely saw that skull based racism was non-sense. So, to fight skull based racism and the residues of color and gender racism requires war.

This brings us up to the present time where the original basis of racism, the emergence of an economic surplus or deficit, generates race hatred mostly of the misanthropic form. There is a group of highly trained racists who argue that at least 80% of the world population must be exterminated so that the 20% can strive and survive. These are basically misanthropes. These misanthropes claim that they only want to get rid of about 80% of the world’s population.

If these racists were successful in wiping out 80% of the world’s population, they would then attempt to get rid of the remaining 20%. These racists so far believe that pestilence and famine are the best ways to get rid of the 80%, but these modern day racists do not overlook the Nazi contribution to racism. This racism can be described as industrialized genocide.

Contemporary racists primarily rely on the manufacture and distribution of lethal germs to produce the pestilence that can wipe out the 80%.

And this pestilence in turn produces the famine that greatly contributes to wiping out the 80%. Research institutes around the world are developing the viruses that will accelerate the rate of mass murder that is underway.

For decades, these institutes were mostly interested in the research of deadly biological agents but today their focus is mainly on the development of these agents.

There is a consideration that impedes the use of these deadly biological agents to attack the 80%. That consideration is the existence or absence of a highly effective antidote that will cure members of the 20% if they are inadvertently infected by the biological agents distributed by modern day racists.

People who talk about the conspiracy to wipe out 80% of the world population are ridiculed as hopeless and incurable paranoids.

The information concerning wiping out the 80% has been hacked but what do you do with the documentation that demonstrates that imperialists are conspiring to wipe out the 80%? Anyone who has possession of the data that proves the imperialists are wiping out the 80% would get the same kind of treatment as Edward Snowden. You cannot take the data hacked from biological research institutes to the bourgeois media because under bourgeois law they are required to notify the state.

AfricaFocus Bulletin
October 11, 2016 (161011)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“The high proportion of immigrants with criminal records who are
targeted for immigration enforcement is the result of an intentional
and pervasive reliance on the machinery of the criminal enforcement
system to identify people for deportation. The criminal enforcement
system–each stage of which has been shown to target Black people
disproportionately–has become a funnel into the immigration
detention and deportation system. ” – The State of Black Immigrants
2016

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/migr1610.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/migr1610.php

A report from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and
the Immigrant Rights Clinic, New York University School of Law,
released in September, provides new well-documented data and policy
analysis on Black immigrants in the United States, primarily
Caribbean and African immigrants. Based on the latest available
statistical data and a careful analysis of migration policies and
their implementation, this report is a basic resource for scholars
and for activists. It includes an informative and detailed glossary
that is essential for those of us who are not specialists in
immigration law and related issues.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains brief excerpts. The full report,
including footnotes, tables, and more detailed analysis and specific
policy recommendations, is available in two parts on-line in pdf
format (http://tinyurl.com/jvaqolo and http://tinyurl.com/jzg9d97).

Two recent articles with related reflections on African immigrants
in the United States are:

“Intersecting Criminalization: What Killed Ugandan Refugee Alfred
Olango,” Michelle Chen, Truthout, October 6, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/h3y6vhg

“African immigrants and race in America,” Anakwa Dwamena, Africa is
a Country, October 9, 2016 http://tinyurl.com/j2z2wvj

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on migration issues, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

The State of Black Immigrants

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Immigrant Rights Clinic, New York University School of Law

Juliana Morgan-Trostle, Kexin Zheng, and Carl Lipscombe

[Brief excerpts only: full text available at
http://tinyurl.com/jvaqolo (Part I) and http://tinyurl.com/jzg9d97
(Part II)]

Introduction

In an era where #BlackLivesMatter and #Not1More have become rallying
cries for racial justice and immigrants’ rights activists
respectively, it’s important that we uplift the common challenges
that cross both movements – mass incarceration, policing, immigrant
detention, deportations, deprivation of civil rights and civil
liberties, economic inequality, and the destruction of families and
communities. These problems are prevalent in all communities of
color in the U.S. But unlike Black Americans and immigrants of other
backgrounds, Black immigrants face the aforementioned challenges in
ways that are unique and consequential.

For over a decade, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
has sought to raise the public consciousness around issues impacting
Black immigrants through education, advocacy, grassroots organizing,
and storytelling. Despite our successes, which include consolidating
Black immigrant power and mobilizing the Black diaspora around the
human rights issues that transcend our communities, Black Americans
and Black immigrants remain at the margins of society.

When it comes to Black immigrants, terms such as “marginalization”
and “oppression” understate the difficulties faced by this
community. Simply put, Black immigrants are invisible. They are
absent from the mainstream and media representation of immigrants.
Their narratives are merged with the stories of other communities of
color in the United States. Research and readily available data on
Black immigrants is scant.

Even the notion of “Black immigrants” as an identity group is
foreign to most. For this reason, we recognized that any research
report about Black immigrants – and this report in particular – must
serve two purposes: (1) to provide basic demographic information
about Black immigrants and (2) to highlight the unique social and
economic challenges facing this immigrant group.

This report confirms our hypothesis: Black immigrants, one of the
fastest growing demographic groups in the U.S., face a myriad of
challenges that parallel those of Black Americans. While this report
is substantive, it is only the beginning. Our hope is that we will
be able to build on the body of research available on the Black
immigrant experience in the U.S. and that this report, in particular
the recommendations toward the end, will lay the groundwork for a
Black immigrant policy agenda over the coming years.

**************************************************************

Part I: A Statistical Portrait of Black Immigrants in the United
States

The last four decades have represented a period of significant
demographic change in the United States. Now more than ever, Black
immigrants compose a significant percentage of both immigrant and
Black populations in the U.S. overall. This report presents a
statistical snapshot of the Black immigrant population, drawing upon
recent studies and original analysis.

I. Size and Growth of Black Immigrant Population

Size and growth of the overall population.

The number of Black immigrants in the United States has increased
remarkably in recent decades. Population data on Black immigrants is
difficult to ascertain, as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services does not track immigration data by race. Some studies
suggest that there are as many as 5 million Black immigrants in the
U.S. According to our analysis of the 2014 American Community Survey
(ACS) data, a record estimate of 3.7 million Black immigrants live
in the United States. While this analysis is conservative, it still
represents a four-fold increase when compared to the number of Black
immigrants who lived in the U.S. in 1980 (which was only about
800,000) and a 54% increase from 2000 (roughly 2.8 million).

Percentage of Black population.

The overall growth of the Black immigrant population represents a
significant change in the demographics of both the Black population
and the immigrant population more broadly in the United States.
First, Black immigrants represent an increasing percentage of Black
people in the United States as a whole. The ACS data shows that
while Black immigrants accounted for only 3.1% of the Black
population in the U.S. in 1980, Black immigrants now account for
nearly 10% of the nation’s Black population. This growth is
particularly significant in states with the largest number of Black
immigrants. For example in New York, Black immigrants make up almost
30% of the total Black population in the state, making it the top
state for Black immigrants in the U.S. Florida seconds the list with
over 20% of its Black population being foreign-born. The Census
Bureau projects that by 2060, 16.5% of America’s Black population
will be foreign-born.

Percentage of the foreign-born population.

Second, Black immigrants make up a significant portion of the
overall immigrant and non-citizen population in the U.S. According
to the 2014 one-year estimates from ACS, the estimated total of
foreign-born population in the U.S. was 42 million, within which
8.7% were Black immigrants. In addition, about 22 million of the
U.S. foreign-born population were non-citizens, among whom 7.2% were
Black.

II. Characteristics of the Black Immigrant Population

Diversity based on country or region of origin.

While Black immigrants in the U.S. come from diverse backgrounds and
regions of the world, immigrants from African and Caribbean
countries comprise the majority of the foreign-born Black
population. According to the 2014 ACS data, Jamaica was the top
country of origin in 2014 with 665,628 Black immigrants in the U.S.,
accounting for 18% of the national total. Haiti seconds the list
with 598,000 Black immigrants, making up 16% of the U.S. Black
immigrant population.

Although half of Black immigrants are from the Caribbean region
alone, African immigrants drove much of the recent growth of the
Black immigrant population and made up 39% of the total foreign-
born Black population in 2014. The number of African immigrants in
the U.S. increased 153%, from 574,000 in 2000 to 1.5 million in
2014, with Nigeria and Ethiopia as the two leading countries of
origin. Besides African and Caribbean regions, an estimated 4% of
Black immigrants are from South America, another 4% are from Central
America, 2% are from Europe and 1% from Asia.

Length of residency in the U.S.

Black immigrants tend to have lived in the U.S. for long periods of
time, although there are some regional differences in length of
residency. As more African immigrants are recent arrivals, those
from the Caribbean have generally lived in the U.S. longer. …

Geographic dispersion in the U.S.

The geographic dispersion of Black immigrants is highly
concentrated. New York State is home to 846,730 (23%) Black
immigrants, making it the top state of residence. Florida has the
second largest foreign-born Black population (18%), followed by
Texas (6%) and Maryland (6%). Some Black immigrant communities tend
to cluster together around certain metropolitan areas. For example,
according to the Pew study of 2013 ACS data, New York City is home
to nearly 40% of all foreign-born black Jamaicans in the U.S.; Miami
has the nation’s largest Haitian immigrant community; Washington
D.C. has the largest Ethiopian immigrant community; and Somalian
immigrants concentrate in metropolitan areas of Minnesota and
Wisconsin.

III. Educational Background of Black Immigrants

A significant percentage of Black immigrants have obtained degrees
through higher education, but the percentage remains lower than the
U.S. population as a whole. According to the ACS 2014 data, more
than a quarter (27%) of Black immigrants age 25 and older have a
bachelor’s degree or higher, three points below the percentage of
the overall U.S. population. However, the proportion with an
advanced degree is similar among all Americans (11%) and Black
immigrants (10%). When comparing Black immigrants with Asian and
Hispanic immigrants, the differences are more apparent. About 30% of
Asian immigrants age 25 and older have completed at least a four-
year degree, whereas only 11% of Hispanic immigrants have done so.
Within Black immigrants, educational attainment also varies among
different regions of birth. About 34% of African immigrants age 25
and older have at least a bachelor’s degree, including 14% with an
advanced degree. In comparison, only 6.2% of Caribbean immigrants
age 25 and older have an advanced degree. Nonetheless, education
attainment for Black immigrants from Africa is still lower than
those from Europe and Asia, with 16.7% and 18.6% of them have an
advanced degree respectively.

IV. Economic Snapshot of Black Immigrants Household income.

Black immigrants have a lower median annual household income than
the median U.S. household and all immigrants in the U.S. Based on
the Pew study of ACS 2013 data, the median annual household income
for foreign-born blacks was $43,800. That’s roughly $8,000 less than
the $52,000 median for American households and $4,200 less than that
of all U.S. immigrants. While the median household income for Black
immigrants is higher than it is for Hispanic immigrants ($38,000),
both groups’ numbers are substantially below that of Asian
immigrants, whose median household income is $70,600. …

According to a 2011 study by the Economic Policy Institute,
Caribbean women earn 8.3% less than U.S. born non-Hispanic white
women; African women earn 10.1% less. When we consider subsets of
Black immigrants, the differences become even more dramatic. For
example, Haitian women earn 18.6% less than U.S. born non-Hispanic
white women.

Similarly, Black immigrant men earn lower wages than U.S. born non-
Hispanic white men. Caribbean men earn 20.7% less than U.S. born
non-Hispanic white men and African men 34.7%. Notably, as of 2011
Black immigrant men also earned lower wages than African American
males. While earnings for Caribbean men were just 1% less than those
of African-Americans, African men earned nearly 15% less than US
Born Black men.

Black Immigrants in the Workforce.

Black immigrants are more likely to participate in the labor force
than the overall immigrant population. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports that 70.8% of Black immigrants participate in the
civilian labor force.

Black immigrants maintain higher rates of employment in service and
sales positions than their counterparts of other immigrant
backgrounds. Other areas of employment for Black immigrants include
management, finance, and construction.

Unionization.

The percentage of unionized Black immigrants has nearly doubled over
the last 20 years from 7% in 1994 to 15.4% in 2015. Black immigrants
are more likely than Black Americans to be unionized. 16.9% of Black
immigrants are union members, compared to 13.8% of Black Americans.
Unionization has proven to have a positive impact on the livelihood
of Black workers. On average Black union members, earn nearly $7
more per hour than non-union Black workers. 71.4% of Black union
members have employer-provided health care, compared to 47.7% of
non-union Black workers. 61.6% of Black union members have employer-
sponsored retirement plans, compared to 38.2% of non-union Black
workers.

V. Immigration Status and Means of Entry

The majority of Black immigrants are living in the U.S. with formal
immigration authorization. According to a Pew study, about 84% of
the Black immigrant population are living in the U.S. with
authorization. This section of the report presents details about
Black immigrants by immigration status.

A. Undocumented Community Members

When compared with the overall share of undocumented immigrants in
the country–about a quarter of the total immigrant population–
Black immigrants are less likely to be in the U.S. unlawfully. An
estimated 575,000 Black immigrants were living in the U.S. without
authorization in 2013, according to the Pew Research Center study,
making up 16% of all Black immigration population. Among Black
immigrants from the Caribbean, 16% are undocumented immigrants and
as are 13% of Black immigrants from Africa. …

When compared with the increase of undocumented immigrant population
from other regions of the world, African and Caribbean unauthorized
immigrants are growing at a lower rate since 2000 than those from
Central America (194% without Mexico) and Asia (202%), but faster
than those from South America (39%) and Europe (62%).

************************************************

Part II: Black Immigrants in the Mass Criminalization System

I. Targeting Immigrants with Criminal Convictions

“Good” vs. “Bad” Migrants

In creating a “good” versus “bad” migrant binary, President Obama
sought to justify a detention and removal campaign that oversaw the
deportation of a record 438,421 immigrants in fiscal year 2013 –an
increase that has led some to refer to President Obama as “deporter-
in-chief.” Since the start of Obama’s administration in 2008, 2.9
million immigrants have been deported from the United States, a
majority of whom (58%) have a criminal record.

“Felons” vs. “Families”

In a national address in November 2014, President Obama announced
that he would focus immigration enforcement resources on individuals
with criminal records–“felons, not families.” This phrase has been
widely criticized as devaluing and dehumanizing individuals with
criminal convictions. After all, “felons” have families, too.

Anti-Blackness

The government’s increasing focus on immigrants with criminal
records disproportionately impacts Black immigrants, who are more
likely than immigrants from other regions to have criminal
convictions, or at least to be identified through interactions with
local law enforcement, because of rampant racial profiling.

Tougher Enforcement

President Obama’s address to the nation coincided with the
Department of Homeland Security’s release of a memo outlining new
immigration enforcement priorities. DHS noted that it would continue
to prioritize national security, border security, and public safety,
and went on to rank certain classes of immigrants in order of
enforcement priority, with a significant focus on targeting people
with criminal records.

Intensification of ICE Removals

Following the November 2014 DHS memo, ICE implemented the revised
Civil Immigration Enforcement Priorities (CIEP) in FY 2015, which
intensified the focus on removing people with criminal convictions
and recent entrants. The highest priority for enforcement resources,
known as “Priority 1,” groups together immigrants “engaged in or
suspected of terrorism or espionage” along with individuals
“apprehended at the border while attempting to unlawfully enter the
United States.” This includes asylum seekers, immigrants convicted
of a felony offense and immigrants convicted of an “aggravated
felony” as defined in section 101(a) (43) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act. The term “aggravated felony” includes offenses that
are neither aggravated nor felonies and has been expanded over time
to include, for example, a single theft offense with a suspended
one-year sentence involving no actual jail time. The memo’s second-
highest priority for detention and deportation, “Priority 2,”
includes immigrants convicted of three or more misdemeanor offenses,
individuals with a “significant misdemeanor” including drug
“distribution” offenses, and people who entered the United States
unlawfully after January 1, 2014. The final category, “Priority 3,”
includes immigrants who were ordered deported after January 1, 2014.
ICE continues to remove individuals who do not fall under these
revised categories if their removal would serve an important
“federal interest.”

Blacks are Disproportionately Represented in the Criminal
Enforcement System

Black people are far more likely than any other population to be
arrested, convicted, and imprisoned in the U.S. criminal enforcement
system–the system upon which immigration enforcement increasingly
relies. Black people are arrested at 2.5 times the rate of whites.
They are more likely than whites to be sentenced to prison, and less
likely to be sentenced to probation. According to the FBI Criminal
Justice Information Services Division, of the total individuals
arrested in 2014, 69.4% were white, 27.8% were Black or African
American, and 3% were of another race. These arrest rates
demonstrate that Black and African American individuals are arrested
at a higher rate than their overall percentage in the population.
These disparities exist even when crime rates are the same; for
example, although Blacks and whites use marijuana at roughly equal
rates, Black people are 3.7 times more likely than whites to be
arrested for marijuana possession.

Targeting Immigrants with Criminal Records

Despite racial disparities in criminal enforcement, the federal
government prioritizes the deportation and detention of individuals
with criminal records. In FY 2015, ICE deported 139,368 people with
criminal convictions, which represented 59% of all ICE removals. The
percentage of people targeted for deportation by ICE based on their
criminal records rose from 82% in FY 2013 to 91% in FY 2015. Many of
their records involved drug-related convictions. In FY 2003-2013,
drug offenses, including simple drug possession, accounted for
almost a quarter of all criminal removals.

Three federal agencies are tasked with enforcing immigration laws:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and
Border Patrol (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS).

Although immigration law is federal, the U.S. government has
instructed state and local law enforcement agencies to assist with
immigration enforcement.

The high proportion of immigrants with criminal records who are
targeted for immigration enforcement is the result on an intentional
and pervasive reliance on the machinery of the criminal enforcement
system to identify people for deportation. The criminal enforcement
system–each stage of which has been shown to target Black people
disproportionately–has become a funnel into the immigration
detention and deportation system.

Stops

Immigrants are exposed to more risks and vulnerability when they are
stopped by the police for minor offenses, such as broken taillights
and traffic violations. When the police decide to take on the duties
of federal immigration enforcement, they often use these stops to
question people about their immigration status and to turn
immigrants over to ICE. Several federal programs have made it easier
for police to expose immigrants with past criminal records.

Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the
Department of Homeland Security to partner with state and local law
enforcement agencies. The 287(g) Program’s Jail Enforcement Teams
interview arrestees regarding their immigration status. … The
National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP) was established on
January 25, 2002. Immediately following the events of September 11,
2001, the Justice Department increased efforts to deport immigrants
with old removal orders.  … Many individuals identified and
deported through this program lived in the United States for many
years and have significant family and community ties. NFOP also
dispatches Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) across the country to
arrest “fugitives” and specifically focuses on “residential
operations.” In late 2006, FOTs began conducting raids more
aggressively and demanding document checks on long-distance buses
and trains. They also arrest people on the streets, in their homes,
and at their workplaces if they cannot produce status documents. FOT
practices have been challenged, especially for home raids, based on
the lack of judicial warrants or probable cause. The program was
still in effect at the time of this report’s publication.

Arrests

When an individual is arrested and booked by a police officer, his
or her fingerprints are sent to the FBI. Through the Priority
Enforcement Program (PEP), state and local law enforcement agencies
share data with immigration enforcement. PEP replaced its
predecessor program, Secure Communities, in July 2015. Under PEP,
this same information is sent to the Department of Homeland
Security, which checks its own databases to determine whether the
individual is a “priority for removal” as described in Secretary Jeh
Johnson’s November 20, 2014 memorandum. ICE will then ask the law
enforcement agency to notify ICE of the individual’s release–or
detain the individual past the time that he or she otherwise would
have been released–so ICE may pick the individual up, resulting in
his or her immediate transfer to ICE custody. …

Many jails and prisons also participate in the Criminal Alien
Program (CAP), which seeks to identify, arrest, and deport
individuals who are incarcerated in federal, state, and local
prisons and jails, as well as “at-large criminal aliens that have
circumvented identification.” Law enforcement agencies notify ICE’s
office of Detention and Removal Operations, which administers CAP,
of foreign-born detainees in their custody. ICE then attempts to
secure their final orders of removal before they are released from
criminal custody.

The programs described in this section employ the use of
“detainers,” also known as “immigration holds,” to facilitate ICE’s
capture of the immigrants that the agency identifies. Detainer use
peaked in March 2011 and then fell steadily; however, it stabilized
as of October 2015, with ICE issuing approximately 7,000 detainers
per month. …

Criminal Charges and Disposition

Immigration enforcement is increasingly present in local jails.
Often, an ICE officer will try to interview noncitizens while in
custody and then initiate paperwork for the removal process if an
individual is determined to be deportable. After an individual or
person charged with a crime, he or she may be confronted with a
choice to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Immigrants are
particularly vulnerable to guilty pleas that may later lead to
removal proceedings. …

A criminal conviction could trigger mandatory detention, deportation
and ineligibility to reenter the United States. It may also serve as
a bar to U.S. citizenship, eligibility to obtain a green card, and
various forms of relief from deportation, such as asylum or
withholding of removal. A conviction will remain permanently in an
individual’s immigration file unless it can be “vacated,” that is
removed, by a judge on the basis of some error in the underlying
criminal proceeding.

Post-Conviction

Serving a sentence may result in further immigration scrutiny or
even removal prior to release. The Institutional Removal Program
(IRP) is a nationwide Department of Homeland Security initiative
that purports to identify removable immigrants who are incarcerated,
ensure they are not released into the community, and remove them
upon completion of sentences. IRP has the effect of forcing
incarcerated noncitizens into deportation proceedings from within
the very prisons to which they are confined, often in the form of
“video hearings” that take place from a room within prison. As a
result, inmates are isolated from all other parties, including the
judge, the prosecutor, the interpreter, witnesses, and sometimes
even their own lawyer. …

IV. Recommendations

W e have concluded from the overwhelming amount of data that the
racialized criminalization evident in the immigration enforcement
system has an acute impact on the state of Black immigrants in the
U.S.. This result is partially due to discriminatory policing
practices and criminal penalties that adversely affect all Black
people. Simultaneously, our analysis of the data suggests that
racial inequities, evidenced by disproportionate, negative outcomes
for Black people, in removal proceedings, also persist in the
immigration enforcement system.

It is the Black Alliance for Just Immigration’s view that the
immigration system must be upended and redesigned to ensure that
those entering the U.S. seeking work, refuge or reunification with
their families and communities, are treated fairly and with dignity.
This transformation can begin by divorcing the U.S. mass
criminalization and immigration enforcement regimes. For this
reason, the repeal of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (“IIR-IRA”) and Anti-terrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), commonly known as the “1996 immigration
laws,” in favor of policies that shift the focus away from criminal
contact as the deciding factor as it pertains to one’s immigration
status in the US by Congress, is BAJI’s primary policy
recommendation.

The 1996 immigration laws expanded the grounds for deportation,
broadened classes of mandatory detention, stripped away judicial
discretion and the right to due process and retroactively punished
those who already served time for their offenses. As this report has
highlighted, Black immigrants have been disproportionately affected
by these laws. The 20th anniversary of IIR-IRA and AEDPA, along with
the current political climate, presents an opportunity to
reinvigorate the movement to upend the nation’s immigration
enforcement system.

V. Conclusion

Just as African-Americans suffer disproportionately high arrest,
prosecution and incarceration rates, so too are Black immigrants.
This occurs despite no evidence that they engage in more
criminalized activities in comparison to any other racial group.
Black immigrants are also disproportionately impacted by the
compounding impact of the immigration enforcement system. Numerous
federal agencies and programs work in conjunction with local law
enforcement to criminalize, detain and deport immigrants. The racism
present in the criminal legal system spills over and informs the
immigration enforcement system, and thus it naturally and unjustly
targets Black immigrants at all stages of the process. As the number
of Black immigrants living in the United States continues to rise,
debates around immigration must acknowledge and rectify the
injustice inherent in these enforcement and deportation systems.

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 21, 2016 (160921)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place … Reflecting the legacy of the slave trade and
colonialism, the African continent and Black people around the world
are disproportionately located at the bottom of a global system that
systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the top “1 percent.” …
there can be no doubt that the number of deaths caused by these
structural economic inequalities rivals or likely even exceeds those
lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/iff1609.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
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This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an article published today in
Praxis (http://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/making-violence-visible/), an on-line publication of the
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. The
article, written by Emily Williams and William Minter, seeks to do
the following: 1) introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign
and make the tremendous loss of resources from African countries via
illicit financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for
linking #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the
understanding that the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth
is hurting people in Africa and elsewhere in the world including the
US; and 3) offer several domestic and global policy changes that
could make a difference on both sides of the Atlantic.

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on illicit financial flows and
related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

In addition to links in the article below, additional newly
published resources include:

From the US-Africa Network

“Top 10 Questions About Illicit Financial Flows and Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/zz4xr53

“Resources about Illicit Financial Flows from Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/jsyg8el

From AfricaFocus Bulletin

Top Ten Books on Illicit Financial Flows, Tax Justice, and Africa
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-books.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Making Violence Visible: From #BlackLivesMatter to #StoptheBleeding
Africa

By Emily Williams and William Minter

[Emily Williams is an educator and organizational development
consultant. William Minter is the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin (
http://www.africafocus.org) and author of numerous books and other
publications on African issues and international relations. Both
authors are members of the coordinating committee of the US-Africa
Network (http://www.usafricanetwork.org). The authors are grateful
for the skillful editing of Alice Kim, which has contributed
immensely to the development of this article.]

In June 2015, a coalition of six Pan-African activist networks
launched #StoptheBleeding Africa (
http://stopthebleedingafrica.org/faqs/) in Nairobi, Kenya to curb
the hemorrhage of resources from the African continent. As the
#BlackLivesMatter movement continued to gain strength in the United
States, this Pan-African coalition came together to expose and
mobilize global support to end illicit financial flows – money that
is illegally earned, transferred or used. Estimates of illegal
transactions in Africa show a loss of at least $50 billion to $80
billion in wealth every year, a figure that would be incalculably
more if transfers made legal by loopholes and unfair treaties were
included. Some flows are only seen as “legal” because the laws are
written and interpreted by those profiting from the system.
Nevertheless, even the outflow of clearly illegal  funds is far
greater than the estimated $40 billion a year that Africa receives
in official development assistance. As explained in this 16-minute
video from the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lenH1SaOcIA), the #StoptheBleeding
campaign includes official commitments by African governments.
However, implementing these commitments depends on large-scale
mobilizations within Africa and around the world.

Unlike the pillage of Africa in earlier periods of the slave trade
and colonial rule, these illicit financial transactions are most
often hidden from public view. They happen through fraudulent
invoicing of trade, “creative accounting” by multinational
corporations, tax giveaways by African governments, and the use of
shell companies based in tax havens around the world including
Delaware, Luxembourg, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Liberia,
and Mauritius. Despite repeated revelations, notably the recent
#PanamaPapers (https://panamapapers.icij.org/) scandal, the public
eye glazes over at billions of dollars cited alongside obscure
company names and a complex web of financial links across national
and continental borders. This article seeks to do the following: 1)
introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign and make the
tremendous loss of resources from African countries via illicit
financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for linking
#BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the understanding that
the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth is hurting people in
Africa and elsewhere in the world including the US; and 3) offer
several domestic and global policy changes that could make a
difference on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Looting Machine

As South African student activist Pearl Pillay noted, “it is a
common error of thought that violence is only what you can see”
(http://tinyurl.com/jtk3hzy). Violence that stems from decisions
made in boardrooms, city halls, and the offices of high-paid
international accounting and law firms can be harder to see than
violence on the streets but is deadly nonetheless.

In the US, economic violence is carried out through systemic public
disinvestment in health and education as we’ve seen in Flint,
Michigan’s water crisis and the closure of public schools in Chicago
and Detroit, not to mention below-poverty-level wages paid by
corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s.

In African countries, capitalist enterprises suck resources out of
the continent via traditional industries like oil and minerals and
rapidly expanding economic sectors like telecommunications and
retail:

* In Nigeria, Shell, Chevron, and other companies from Europe and
China share oil profits with corrupt Nigerian officials. The Panama
Papers reveals that “three oil ministers, several senior employees
of the national oil company and two former state governors” were
“convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry” (
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160725-nigeria-oil-mogul.html). One
prominent Nigerian oil trader is accused of cheating the Nigerian
government out of 1.8 billion dollars in oil sales.

*In Angola, an oligarchy headed by the president’s family presides
over oil riches in alliance with companies including Chevron,
ExxonMobil, BP, and a Hong Kong-based international network of
companies known as the Queensway Group (http://tinyurl.com/n5bn5gn).

* In South Africa, the mobile phone company MTN is able to avoid
paying taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars from its
subsidiaries in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and other African countries,
it was revealed last year, by channeling most of its profits through
“management fees” to its subsidiary tax haven in Mauritius (
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/td1510.php).

* Walmart, which has controlled the South Africa-based Massmart
since 2011, hides an estimated $76 billion of its foreign earnings
through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, where it owns no stores (
http://tinyurl.com/hmhg24t). By hiding these earnings stored in
Luxembourg, Walmart avoids paying taxes on the funds.

These financial practices can be as, if not more, deadly than police
violence due to the sheer number of people impacted as resources
needed for health, education, and other public services, as well as
for private and public investment in development, are siphoned out
to multinational corporations and overseas bank accounts. The
ensuing competition for scarce resources fuels local and national
conflicts, often heightened by demagogues channeling the frustration
into hostility toward ethnic “others.”

The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place; and, in fact, not only parallels the violence of
terrorism but also reflects its disproportionate toll on the Middle
East, Africa, and Asia than in Europe and the Americas (
http://tinyurl.com/hlsbj8b). Reflecting the legacy of the
slave trade and colonialism, the African continent and Black people
around the world are disproportionately located at the bottom of a
global system that systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the
top “1 percent.” Whether this system is best called capitalism,
neoliberalism, global apartheid, white supremacy, kleptocracy, or
something else, there can be no doubt that the number of deaths
caused by these structural economic inequalities rivals or likely
even exceeds those lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.

+++++++++++

Stop the Bleeding (4-minute music video)

++++++++++++

Financial Flows and Tax Losses

With the #PanamaPapers leak in April 2016, illicit financial flows
momentarily gained international media attention. This is in part
because rich as well as poor countries are affected. A recent
calculation (http://tinyurl.com/holnnc5) estimated that illegal
tax evasion costs US taxpayers $35 billion a year, with an
additional $130 billion a year lost to technically legal “tax
avoidance.” Even without any changes in tax rates for the rich,
these “lost” funds could add $165 billion a year more in public
funds and be invested in health, education, and other public goods
that benefit Americans.

The losses to sub-Saharan Africa from illicit flows, however, have
an even more significant impact given the smaller size of African
economies and the urgent need for investment in basic services.
According to World Bank estimates (http://tinyurl.com/hw7b8t3) for
2014, while the United States and other rich countries on average
spend over $9,000 a year per person on public health, South Africa
spends a little less than $600 a year per person. Meanwhile the
average for all African countries together is less than $100 per
person per year. As the wealthy evade taxes in both richer and
poorer countries, it is always the most vulnerable in society who
suffer most from budget cuts. On a global scale, African countries
and African people suffer disproportionately, reflecting the global
hierarchy of wealth and power
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-inequality.php).

Watch this 3.5 minute video on how Zambia Sugar evades taxes.

Making Connections Across Geographic and Mental Distance

Although #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding were born out of
distinct geographic contexts, highlight apparently different social
problems, call for varying solutions, and have diverging levels of
visibility in the global media, they are inextricably and deeply
linked.

Thanks to #BlackLivesMatter the pervasive systemic violence against
Black people by police and the criminal justice system in the US is
now more visible. Names like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandra
Bland, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, and
Philando Castile have not been forgotten because activists have
strategically used social media, street protests, and behind-the-
scenes organizing to force the media, the public, and politicians to
pay attention.

In the U.S., increasing economic inequality has led to the
criminalization of the poor and can be directly connected to police
violence. For example, in the cases of Alton Sterling and Eric
Garner, their attempts to make money in the street economy (selling
cd’s and loose cigarettes respectively) is what preceded their
interaction with police that ultimately ended in the loss of their
lives. U.S. activists are intentionally making economic justice fundamental to the message of #BlackLivesMatter in initiatives like the Agenda to Build Black Futures (http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/) released by Black Youth
Project in January 2016 and the Vision for Black Lives (https://policy.m4bl.org/) released by a coalition of Black
organizations in August 2016. Notably, #BlackLivesMatter
interventions in numerous cities were integral to pushing Bernie
Sanders’ presidential campaign, which appealed to a growing segment
of the American population because it called for a more progressive
and populist economic agenda, to (belatedly) acknowledge the
relationship between racial justice, gender justice, and economic
justice.

But the violence plaguing Africa remains far too invisible to most
Americans. It is more difficult to #saytheirnames when the report is
of 44 killed at the #Marikana mine in South Africa, 147 students at
#Garissa in Kenya, or hundreds of men, women, and children at #Baga
in northeastern Nigeria, places most Americans have never visited
and can’t find on a map.

Although the Nigerian-launched campaign to #BringBackOurGirls won
international fame, few Americans (beyond African immigrants and
others with close personal links to the continent) are attentive to
other struggles in Africa. Hashtags like #StoptheBleeding,
#OccupyNigeria, #MinersShotDown, #FeesMustFall, and #RhodesMustFall
echo faintly, if at all, across the Atlantic.

Making the connections between what is happening “here” and what is
happening “there” is not easy – #StoptheBleeding can feel less
tangible because the violence being contested is hidden in a tangle
of economic statistics, anonymous shell companies, and accounting
tricks – but it is fundamental to addressing the obstacles that must
be overcome to make a different world possible. It is imperative to
address the roots of injustice that connect #BlackLivesMatter and
#StoptheBleeding by fostering a collective process that builds
solidarity between movement forces in the US and Africa.

Follow the Money

When policymakers—in Chicago, Washington, Pretoria, Nairobi, or
anywhere else —ask “Where is the money?” to pay for health,
education, and infrastructure, the answer should be, in the words of
the African Union Panel on Illicit Financial Flows: “Track it! Stop
it! Get it!” (http://tinyurl.com/zvwn5p5) The debate must go beyond
the very real issues of setting different budget priorities to
raising the basic question of who pays and who is evading their duty
to pay their fair share. The first step is to ensure that there is
full information available on income and wealth of those who have
the most money, including the ultra-rich, the well-known giant
companies, and also the obscure shell companies that both use to
hide their wealth from public view.

The United States and other rich countries are the home countries
for the majority of multinational corporations involved in the
looting of the African continent. They also provide convenient
facilities for African elites to hide their riches. In a report
published in January 2016, Global Witness documented with video
interviews their undercover investigation of 13 leading New York law
firms (https://www.globalwitness.org/shadyinc/). “We said we were
advising an African minister who had accumulated millions of
dollars, and we wanted to buy a Gulfstream Jet, a brownstone and a
yacht. We said we needed to get the money into the U.S. without
detection. … the results were shocking; all but one of the lawyers
had suggestions on how to move the funds.”

On the African continent, #StoptheBleeding activist groups and many
public officials at continental and national level are working to
identify the money that pours out of the continent. They have
identified specific measures to improve tracking of fraud in trade
invoices and are campaigning against tax treaties with foreign
investors with massive giveaways. They are working with
international partners to train journalists in investigations such
as those in the Panama Paper, and with tax specialists to improve
capacity to track overseas bank accounts. Implementation depends on
mobilization of public pressure and political will in each
individual country. Since the system is global, however, it also
depends on international collaboration, particularly from the
countries where the money is hidden.

And that’s where the connection to the United States becomes
essential, and the agendas of #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding
Africa potentially converge. The ultra-rich and multinational
corporations operate on a global playing field. Using secret bank
accounts, lawyers, and accountants spread around the world, money
can be transferred with a click of a mouse from Nairobi or Chicago
to the British Virgin Islands to London, with stops along the way in
Panama, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Singapore, and Samoa in
the Pacific. If tax authorities are going to track down the money
they should be getting, activists and honest public officials around
the world must also find ways to collaborate to change the laws and
implement them (see the text box for a few examples of key policies
that could make a difference).

++++++++++++++++

Key Policy Changes Needed for Tax Justice

1. Beneficial ownership in the US

Over two million corporations, LLCs, and other business entities are
formed in the United States every year—and almost every state
collects less identifying information from the individuals forming
these entities than from people applying for a driver’s license or
registering to vote. Indeed, many states rank among the easiest
places in the world in which to form “anonymous shell companies” or
“phantom firms” – business entities that exist solely on paper with
no obligation to list the real people who actually own or control
them, otherwise known as the “beneficial owners.” If they remain
hidden, it is not possible to find and to tax the assets, whether
they come from drug dealing or simply from rich people trying to
avoid paying taxes.

Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Incorporation
Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S. 2489 and H.R.
4450)

2. Public Country-by-Country Reporting

Currently, multinationals are able to exploit loopholes in domestic
and international tax laws to shift profits from one country to the
next, often through tax havens (or “secrecy jurisdictions”), with
the end goal of reducing or even eliminating the tax they pay to
governments. Without leaks and whistleblowers, even governments only
see a small window into the inner workings of companies, which makes
proving tax avoidance or evasion nearly impossible. Although MNCs
report on their profits, revenue, taxes paid, and number of
employees, the global numbers they provide are for the operations of
all of their subsidiaries bundled together.

Multinational corporations should be required to submit individual
reports with basic financial information such as revenue, profits,
taxes, and number of employees for each jurisdiction in which they
operate. These country by country reports should be made available
to the public. Public country-by-country reporting strengthens the
financial system for everyone.

New regulations on country-by-country reporting by corporations were
issued this year by the Treasury and the IRS, and are also under
consideration by the Security and Exchange Commission. However,
these do not yet meet the standard of public disclosure demanded by
tax justice advocates.

3. Financial Transaction (Robin Hood) Tax

Simply put, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate
hundreds of billions of dollars, through a small tax of 0.5% on all
financial transactions such as sales of stocks and bonds. That money
could provide funding for jobs to kickstart the economy and get
America back on its feet. It could help save the social safety net
here and around the world, and it will come from fair taxation of
the finance sector. The revenue raised would be enough to protect
American schools, housing, local governments and hospitals, to pay
for lifesaving AIDS medicines, to support people and communities
around the world, and to deal with the climate challenges we’re
facing.

Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Inclusive Prosperity Act
(H.R. 1464), introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep.
Keith Ellison and 36 co-sponsors and in the Senate (S. 1371) by Sen.
Bernie Sanders, with 1 co-sponsor.

+++++++++++

Action at the federal level can have the widest effect, given the
size of the U. S. economy and the impact of U.S. policy on
international action. But given that corporations are registered at
the state level and also pay corporate taxes at the state level,
states also have the capacity to take the lead and set a precedent
for national action. If the political will and the technical legal
and financial expertise are available, similar laws could possibly
even be implemented at city levels, as were divestment measures in
the anti-apartheid era.

Solidarity between #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleedingAfrica is
crucial. Via weak corporate tax law, the U.S. gives license to
corporations to hoard profits and withhold their fair share of taxes
from the societies and countries which allow them to become
prosperous. By standing in opposition to tax injustice, activists
can push back against an aspect of U.S. capitalism that contributes
to increasing wealth inequality. By staying informed, building
relationships, and working in solidarity, we begin to create better
conditions for Black lives across the globe.

Incremental policy change will not be enough. We must confront the
legacy of centuries of systemic injustice and end society’s denial
that this past still shapes the present. The violent inequality of
today’s world is not new, despite dramatic changes in the
technologies of both physical and economic violence. Making that
violence visible also requires making full use of new technologies,
from cellphone videos to big-data journalism. But above all, it
depends on forging links between activists engaged on these
different fronts in different places, who together can build the
political will to act and thus make new futures possible.

For More Information

Africa-specific

Tax Justice Network – Africa
http://www.taxjusticeafrica.net/en/blog/

AfricaFocus Bulletin
http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

US-Africa Network
Stop the Bleeding Africa

USA and Global

FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition
https://thefactcoalition.org/blog/

ActionAid International
http://www.actionaid.org/tax-power

Global Alliance for Tax Justice
http://www.globaltaxjustice.org/en/resources

Tax Justice Network
http://www.taxjustice.net/reports-2/

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org