Georgetown Law & UBN Life on Hold

How Selected Immigration Laws and Policies Affect Black Immigrants Immigrants face many roadblocks to entry into the United States, and several disproportionately impact Black people or are specifically targeted at majority-Black countries and their citizens. Unlike more highly publicized Black immigration issues such as the Muslim and African Travel Bans 12 and the current use of Title 42 at the Southern border, this section highlights lesser-known immigration provisions with outsize impacts on Black immigrants. 13 Three and Ten Year Bars to Reentry The three-year and ten-year bars to reentry to the United States came about as part of immigration reform legislation known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996. 14 IIRIRA was a turning point in immigration law and policy, as it equated immigration enforcement with crime control and further criminalized undocumented immigration. 15 IIRIRA created bars to reentering the United States for immigrants who, through various circumstances (such as overstaying a nonimmigrant visa), may accrue unlawful presence in the United States and then leave the country, often in an attempt to reenter lawfully. 16 If someone has been in the country unlawfully for more than 180 days but less than one year, they are barred from reentry to the United States for three years. If their unlawful presence in the United States is more than one year, the bar to reentry is ten years. 17 For many immigrants who may qualify for a green card through the family-based immigration system (for example, having relatives who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents), the law presents a double bind: deciding between staying in the United States without legal status and accruing more unlawful presence, or leaving the United States to eventually gain lawful status, but being barred from reentry for three years or a decade. 18 These bars put Black immigrants who may overstay their visas in a particular type of quandary, resulting in either living a life in constant fear of removal or facing separation from family and other loved Section 243(d) of the INA gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to invoke visa sanctions against foreign countries it classifies as “recalcitrant.” This determination is based on factors such as hindering removal efforts by ICE, denying or delaying issuing travel documents for deportees, or refusing to allow chartered removal flights into the country of removal. 19 The visa sanctions are determined on a country-by-country basis by the Department of State after it has been notified by DHS of recalcitrant 12 Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States, WhiteHouse.gov (Jan. 20, 2021), https://www.whitehouse. gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/proclamation-ending-discriminatory-bans-on-entry-to-the-united-states/. 13 Nicole Phillips & Tom Ricker, The Invisible Wall: Title 42 and its Impact on Haitian Migrants, Quixote Ctr. et. al. (Mar. 2021), https://www.quixote.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Invisible-Wall.pdf. 14 8 USC §1182(a)(9)(B)(i). 15 Patrisia Macías-Rojas, Immigration and the War on Crime: Law and Order Politics and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, 6 J. on Migration & Human Security 1, 25 (2018), https://journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1177/233150241800600101. 16 The Three- and Ten-Year Bars How New Rules Expand Eligibility for Waivers, Am. Immigration Council (Oct. 2016) https://www. americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/three_and_ten_year_bars.pdf. 17 8 USC §1182(a)(9)(B)(i), See Unlawful Presence and Bars to Admissibility, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., https://www.uscis. gov/laws-and-policy/other-resources/unlawful-presence-and-bars-to-admissibility (last visited May 4, 2021). 18 Id. 19 Visa Sanctions Against Multiple Countries Pursuant to Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., https://www.ice.gov/remove/visa-sanctions (last visited May 4, 2021). ones after spending many years living in the United States. Punitive Visa Sanctions Against Black Countries

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

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