Banding Together for Immigrant Rights

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On June 23 megaphones were a-blazin' as anti-immigration protesters and counter-protesters sounded off against each other in Los Angeles. San FranciscoBayView's Leslie Radford reports that at the march, which was organized by the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group called Choose Black America urged African Americans to come to their side of the picket line. 'Don't be fooled by the black-brown coalitions,' one announcement intoned. As Radford reports, the divide-and-conquer entreaty was lost on the alliance of blacks, Latinos, and whites who showed up in support of immigrant rights.
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Though stories abound of whites and blacks coming together to combat illegal immigration, positive counter-alliances are emerging between Latinos and African Americans. 'The media love to show images of a few African Americans demonstrating together with right-wing groups,' writes Gerald Lenoir in an opinion piece for New America Media. His Berkeley-based organization, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), offers a different storyline. Standing up to racism, writes Lenoir, who is a coordinator for BAJI, means fighting it in all its forms. And that means building a joint movement for immigrant rights and civil rights.

To that end, Lenoir and BAJI members, along with representatives from other immigrant-rights organizations, recently toured the US-Mexican border, reports Latino Perspectives Magazine. After witnessing what he calls 'a war zone' at the border, Lenoir told the magazine that BAJI will compile a report for the United Nations on migrant rights in the United States.?

Though the alliance may seem natural to some, polls show that African Americans have mixed feelings toward immigration. A Pew Charitable Trusts poll from April 2006, referenced by Lenoir, suggests that most African Americans view immigrants as 'hard-working' (79 percent) and as 'hav[ing] strong family values' (77 percent). The poll also shows, however, that African Americans are more likely than whites to believe that 'immigrants take jobs away from American citizens.' ?

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