Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Like millions of Black people, I’m descended from Africans forcibly brought to America in chains and brutally enslaved. But millions of other Black people or their ancestors (including some of my extended family) came to America voluntarily as immigrants.
Black immigrants are continuing to arrive in growing numbers, strengthening our nation. This makes desperately needed immigration reform an important issue for the Black community, as well as for people of other races and ethnicities.
President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress (and perhaps a handful of Republicans) are seeking passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would create a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants already in the U.S. and create an orderly process to admit more migrants legally.
Unfortunately, many congressional Republicans and Republicans seeking the presidency are more interested in using immigration as an issue to attack Democrats than they are in fixing our broken immigration system.
The need for immigration reform has never been greater with the expiration of an emergency immigration restriction known as Title 42, which allowed the federal government to immediately expel unauthorized migrants entering the U.S.
The administration of then-President Donald Trump imposed Title 42 in March 2020, ostensibly as a public health measure to control the spread of COVID-19. Migrants have been expelled from the U.S. over 2.7 million times under…
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