On September 7, 2023, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance submitted testimony to the Honorable Jim Jordan, Chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, House Judiciary Committee; the Honorable Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement; and members of the Subcommittee. The testimony was issued for the September 14, 2023 hearing, “Terrorist Entry Through the Southwest Border.” Following is a letter for OHIA Director Lynn Tramonte that accompanied the testimony. Read the submission here.
First, I want to state that this testimony has nothing to do with terrorists entering the United States through the southern border.
I submit this statement anticipating that some subcommittee members may confuse the issues of humanitarian protection and terrorism, as has happened in other hearings. As you know, people who are forced to seek asylum are not terrorists. Terror is what they are fleeing.
Senator Lankford made this very mistake in a hearing before the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, on September 6, 2023. He talked about the increase in people from Mauritania who are seeking asylum in the U.S. as a cause for concern.
Senator Lankford does not seem to know about the Mauritanian genocide, or the fact that 90,000 or more Black people are held in slavery there, while others are subjected to apartheid measures. The reasons Black people are not safe in Mauritania are detailed in the attached report, “Black Mauritanians’ Ongoing Search for Safety.”
Instead of being forced into dangerous journeys to escape this abuse, Black Mauritanians should have safe migration paths. Also, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security should designate the country for Temporary Protected Status, and allow people deported to slavery, statelessness, and apartheid to return to the U.S. No one should be deported to these dangers.
Ohio is home to the largest population of Black Mauritanians in the United States. The resident Mauritanian community, many of whom have become U.S. citizens and married and raised children here, has opened its arms and homes to the recently-arrived Mauritanians because they have been in their shoes. And this is how people care for each other.
Abdoul Mbow is one of the leaders who have been helping people find housing, food, and lawyers, as well as driving them to English classes. Because the U.S. has not established safe ways for Black Mauritanian refugees to migrate, several men have died on the journey. Others have told him why they risk their lives to come here. “We are dead already.”
Find the complete testimony packet here.