Georgetown Law & UBN Life on Hold

Opportunities DED recipients are generally eligible to obtain work authorization and do not accrue unlawful status during the specified DED period (meaning they would avoid being subject to bars to reentry while in DED status). 51 Work permits, in turn, allow DED recipients to apply for drivers’ licenses in most states. Obstacles As DED is derived from the executive power and has no statutory authority, DED holders are often dependent on the priorities of the current presidential administration. DED holders are also faced with the prospect of having their status revoked, as threatened by the former Trump Administration’s moves to wind down this protection. Similar to TPS and DACA, this status is impermanent and leaves recipients without the ability to make long-term plans for their careers, families, or communities. DED Through the Black Immigrant Lens Around 10,000 Liberians are affected by President Biden’s January 2021 move to reinstate DED. 52 Since the 1990s, Liberians who fled the civil war in their country of origin have received protection from deportation through TPS and later DED. The Trump Administration’s decision to phase out DED in January 2021 jeopardized the lives and livelihood of Liberians, who risked losing their jobs in addition to possibly being deported if DED expired. Many DED holders have been living in the United States for thirty years, establishing deep ties to their communities in the United States. However, due to the extension of DED for Liberians early in the Biden Administration, eligible Liberians in the United States will be temporarily safe from deportation until June 30, 2022. CONCLUSION Part I of this report offers a non-exhaustive snapshot of the varied Black immigrant experience in the United States. Black immigrants face significant, systemic challenges accessing all manner of immigration benefits as well as navigating an anti-Black, racist system of law enforcement and policing. Black immigrants are often excluded from national rhetoric about immigration and are thus left out of critical conversations and advocacy spaces where their diverse experiences as asylum seekers, refugees, visa holders, DACA recipients, TPS holders, and DED holders are ignored. Part II will delve deeply into the hard-won Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Program, which is the outcome of years of community organizing led by and focused on Black immigrants.

51 Ben Harrington, An Overview of Discretionary Reprieves from Removal: Deferred Action, DACA, TPS, and Others, Cong. Res.Serv. (R45158) (2018). 52 Daniel Gonzalez, Black immigrant advocates praise Biden for reinstating deportation protections for Liberians who fled civil war, azcentral.com (Feb. 14, 2021), https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2021/02/14/biden-reinstates-liberian- deportation-protections-deferred-enforced-departure/4363464001/.

Life On Hold: Black Immigrants & the Promise of Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness

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