U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D- Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Prospect Lefferts Gardens) traveled to United States-Mexico border by way of the San Ysidro, California Port of Entry last Friday to address the crisis of the 4.2 million black immigrants who are at risk of deportation and arrest due to racial profiling.
Clarke joined host U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA) whose District extends from the Pacific Ocean across the entire southern border of the state of Arizona, plus Congressional Black Caucus Members Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-CA) and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), to witness the conditions at the southern border.
“To see the conditions at our Southern border with my own eyes as I just did in San Ysidro and Tijuana was soul-crushing. Our country’s immigration crisis is heartbreaking, un-American and will forever leave a stain on our history. The testimonies I heard from migrants, human rights activists, government officials and former asylum officers were not normal,” said Clarke.
“We must never believe it is normal to treat a human being like how Trump and his hate-fueled administration are doing at our Southern border. Trump sees America through a white lens and is using Brown and Black migrant families to propel hate in America and further his anti-immigrant agenda. We have a series of human rights violations on our hands and these innocent individuals are the ones who are suffering,” she added.
During the meeting with African and Caribbean migrants in Tijuana, Clarke heard testimonies of African and Caribbean migrants:
- with post-traumatic stress disorder, whose trauma prevented them from verbally communicating due to non-stop, inconsolable crying
- who reported sexual abuse at the hands of officers and healthcare professionals
- who were separated from their families and stripped of their documentations, so are not able to return home
- who have suffered through serious ailments, starvation and injuries, and have yet to seek help because the resources available are only in Spanish
- who have experienced violence and have been excluded from receiving proper care and basic necessities because of their ethnicity
Clarke also sat in on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization’s Field Hearing on this major violation of human rights. Government officials, asylum officers and advocates for black migrants at the border testified in order to give a broader perspective of the devastating human rights effects of restrictive and unwelcoming policies that have been adopted by the Trump Administration.
“As a member of Congress I have a responsibility to protect our most vulnerable individuals in this country, and being on the Homeland Security Committee I know keeping our country safe is of utmost importance, but these innocent migrants are simply pawns in Trump’s xenophobic plan to whitewash America. The conditions in which migrants who are stuck at the border ‘live’ is not living, it’s barely holding on—it’s surviving,” said Clarke.
“I am disturbed that the stories of black migrants remain untold and unheard- their stories matter. Their voices have been heard. Immigration is very much a Black issue and I will never stop fighting for those at our border who are undoubtedly suffering from psychological trauma and long-term damage from being thrown into these horrific conditions at the hands of Donald Trump. We will not back down from the bully who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the trickle-down hate he’s trying very hard to systematize in our country,” she added.
As a second-generation American herself and with a significant immigrant population in her largely Caribbean-American district, Clarke has been a staunch champion of immigrant rights in her Congressional tenure. She is an original co-sponsor of the Families, Not Facilities Act of 2019, aimed at limiting ICE’s ability to engage in abuse tactics and inflicting harm upon millions of unaccompanied undocumented children.
Clarke’s House agenda also includes fighting for family unification and to protect the more than 1.2 million undocumented individuals residing in the city.
