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9 Geo. J. L. & Mod. Critical Race Persp. 99 (2017)
The Crossroads: Being Black, Immigrant, and Undocumented in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter

handle is hein.journals/gjmodco9 and id is 103 raw text is: The Crossroads: Being Black, Immigrant, and Undocumented in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter BREANNEJ. PALMER* INTRODUCTION This paper discusses the detrimental, intersectional effects of immigration law and criminal law on Black immigrants, both with and without documentation. Anti- Black racism, deeply embedded in America's criminal law system, funnels Black immigrants into the criminal justice system, and subsequently into removal or other punitive immigration proceedings. Black immigrants have long been missing, or purposely erased, from the national immigration narrative. Only a handful of organi- zations advocate for their particularized needs. As Black immigrant activism increases in visibility, opportunities for a new form of coalition building-known as transfor- mational solidarity-must be adopted in order to protect and advocate for Black immigrants. Part One presents the increasing presence of Black immigrants in the U.S., and discusses the ways in which racialized policing and application of criminal laws subject Black immigrants to some of the same perils Black Americans face when confronted by the criminal justice system. Yet, for Black immigrants, this confronta- tion can lead to removal or other dire immigration consequences. Part One lays out statistics about Black immigrants, including their higher rates of detention and removal as compared to other immigrant groups. Part Two proposes that the Black immigrant population's invisibility, and resulting vulnerability, requires targeted activism from both immigration reform and migrant rights advocates and criminal justice reform advocates. Part Two also highlights two such organizations advocating for Black immigrants: the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and the UndocuBlack Network (UndocuBlack) and shows how their work engages in transformational solidarity. Part Three proposes a forward-looking path for Black advocates, focusing on BAJI's theory of transformational solidarity: migrant rights activists and activists in the Movement for Black Lives must collaborate in order to ensure Black immigrants and undocumented Black people are part of the larger narrative and being advocated for. This collaboration will create a fuller, contextual- ized, and better-informed picture of what criminal and immigration law reform can-and should-look like. This collaboration will add even more texture to the still-burgeoning, and increasingly intersectional, Movement for Black Lives.1 During the weekend of April 8 to 10, 2016, the Black Immigration Network (BIN) hosted its biennial Kinship Assembly, Black Love Beyond Borders, in Los * J.D. 2016, Georgetown University Law Center. @ 2016, Breanne Palmer. 1. The Movement for Black Lives refers to not only the formal Black Lives Matter network, consisting of local chapters of Black Lives Matter, but also the efforts of individuals and grassroots groups not formally affiliated with the Black Lives Matter network. Each of these groups is engaged in the work of modern Black liberation. 99

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