Black Immigrants Rights Group Dispels Misconceptions

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Black Alliance for Just Immigration -- a key player in immigrant rights advocacy and education -- inaugurated their new office in downtown Oakland, starting off the year with an open house event attended activists and community leaders.

Unlike similar organizations, BAJI's work extends beyond pushing for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. They believe in a long-term solution that brings forth information and dialogue on race, globalization and social justice among African Americans.

"No matter what legislation passes, it wont settle the issue of immigrant rights: it may or may not help us develop a social movement. We need to understand that whatever happens with immigration legislation, the struggle continues even after the battle is won or lost," said BAJI Director Gerald Lenoir.

Their focus lies on directly addressing the root of the problem: misinformation among the African-American community and a general lack of knowledge regarding the international economic policies directly linked to immigration.

The organization organizes meetings within churches, community colleges and universities, black and associated student unions with means of developing a progressive African American advocacy movement to help in fostering dialogue about U.S. immigration policy its underlying issues of underrepresentation, racism and economic inequity.

Lenoir described a notion that involves immigrants taking African Americans' jobs and even further, their social, geographic and political space.

Lenoir explained, "This is a very emotional issue for African Americans because there is a feeling in a section of our community that we've been dissed, that we have lost rights, that the gains of the Civil Rights Movement are being reversed and other people are benefitting for what we fought for."

A 2006 report conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that 34 percent of African Americans feel immigrants take jobs away from American citizens, rather than take jobs Americans do not want. The study also shows that 22 percent of blacks claim that they or a family member lost or did not get a job because an employer hired an immigrant worker.

It's a belief BAJI is working towards dispelling.

While the majority of documented and undocumented immigrant populations in the U.S. are predominantly of Latino origin, there is also a significant African immigrant population in search for the same "American dream," an idea that many still struggle to define.

According to a 2006 study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Research Center, there are approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Of that total, approximately 78 percent or 8.7 million are from Mexico and Latin America, while 3 percent or 400,000 are from Africa, 13 percent from Asia and the remaining 6 percent from Europe and Canada.

Whether it involves the Latino, African, Asian or European immigrant community, these groups are brought together under the same legal, economic and social struggles.

Despite concerns of the African American community, the Pew Research Center study also states that blacks in the general public are more supportive than whites of allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. (by 47 percent to 33 percent).

Because of the upcoming congressional elections, chances of a new immigration reform bill reaching the House and Senate floors any time soon, remain bleak. But the movement itself shows signs of revival after Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill, introduced a new bill (HR-4321) last month.

While the number of immigrant detainees is at an all-time high, immigration reform remains a generally unaddressed issue backed by a movement that seems to be simmering under the surface.

BAJI Senior Organizer, Phil Hutchings, believes the movement itself seems to be gaining momentum on its own as immigrant rights supporters who played a key role in Obama's 2008 presidential victory are beginning to demand action despite other priorities in the government's agenda.