BAJI Delegation at the border wall near Tucson, AZ

The mission of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration is to engage African Americans and other communities in a dialogue that leads to actions that challenge U.S. immigration policy and the underlying issues of race, racism and economic inequity that frame it.

BAJI’s goal is to develop a core group of African Americans who are prepared to actively support immigrant rights and to build coalitions with immigrant communities and immigrant rights organizations to further the mutual cause of economic and social justice for all.

BAJI members are united on four principles:

• All people, regardless of immigration status, country of origin, race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation or HIV status deserve human rights as well as social and economic justice.
• Historically and currently, U.S. immigration policy has been infused with racism, enforcing unequal and punitive standards for immigrants of color.
• Immigration to the United States is driven by an unjust international economic system that deprives people of the ability to earn a living and raise their families in their home countries. Through international trade, lending, aid and investment policies, the United States government and corporations are the main promoters and beneficiaries of this unjust economic system.
• African Americans, with our history of being economically exploited, marginalized and discriminated against, have much in common with people of color who migrate to the United States, documented and undocumented.

BAJI supports an immigration policy with the following features:

• A fair path to legalization and citizenship for undocumented immigrants;
• No criminalization of undocumented workers immigrants or their families, friends and service providers;
• Due process, access to the courts and meaningful judicial review for immigrants;
• No mass deportations, indefinite detentions or expansion of mandatory detentions of undocumented immigrants;
• The strengthening and enforcement of labor law protections for all workers, native and foreign born;
• Reunification of families;
• No use of local or state government agencies in the enforcement of immigration laws.

BAJI is an education and advocacy group comprised of African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean. It was founded in April 2006 in response to the massive outpouring of opposition of immigrants and their supporters to the repressive immigraion bills then under consideration by the U.S. Congress.

Black activists in the Oakland/San Fancisco Bay Area were called to action by Rev. Kelvin Sauls,a South African immigrant and Rev. Phillip Lawson, a long time Civil Rights leader and co-founder/co-chair of the California Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

BAJI also grew out of the efforts of the Priority Africa Network. PAN organizes Africa Diaspora Dialogues which have brought African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America together to dialogue about the myths and stereotypes as well as the cultural, social and poltical issues that divide our communities.

BAJI is a member organization of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, www.nnirr.org.

BAJI provides the African American community with a progressive analysis and framework on immigration that links the interests of African Americans with those of immigrants of color. BAJI’s analysis emphasizes the impact of racism and economic globalization on African American and immigrant communities as a basis for forging alliances across these communities. 

Public Presentations. BAJI works with immigrant rights organizations, as well as faith-based, racial justice, civil rights, economic justice, academic, student and youth groups to cosponsor or participate in forums, presentations, workshops and conferences that address the root causes of migration and African American-immigrant issues in order to bring the communities together in dialogue.

Training and Technical Assistance. BAJI develops the capacity of African American and black immigrant leaders and activists to address and organize around immigration issues through training and technical assistance.

Conversations about Immigration. BAJI organizes small group discussions on African American-immigrant relations among African Americans.

Media Outreach. BAJI reaches a broad swath of the African American community through the mainstream, alternative and black media.

Networking. BAJI brings African American and black immigrant activists and leaders together to explore common analyses, exchange strategies, share information and develop coordinated campaign.
 
Advocacy. BAJI members are part of task forces in Oakland and Richmond, Calif. in support of municipal identifications for immigrants and others.  At the national level, BAJI participates in advocacy efforts for fair and just immigration reform.  As a member of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, BAJI is cooperating with campaigns to stop the raids and deportation of immigrants.  BAJI is also apart of a national campaign to secure more Family Visas and Humanitarian Parole Visas for Haitians devastated by the January 2010 earthquake, along with Haitian Women of Miami, the Florida Immigration Coalition, the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center (Atlanta) and Project Voices of the American Friends Service Committee.

Solidarity.  BAJI members extend their public solidarity to immigrants under attack by taking part in immigrant rights rallies and marches, participating in media events to expose abuses of immigrants, and organizing educational tours to countries with significant immigration to the United States, e.g., Mexico and Haiti.

BAJI STEERING COMMITTEE
Co-founders: Rev. Phillip Lawson and Rev. Kelvin Sauls
Wilson Riles, Jr., Former Oakland City Councilmember
Alona Clifton, Black Women Organized for Political Action
Leonard McNeil, Mayor, City of San Pablo
Walter Riley, Chair, Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
Jean Damu of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
Dr. Steven Pitts, Researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center
Sharron Gelobter, Immigration Attorney
Phil Hutchings, BAJI Senior Organizer
Nunu Kidane, Coordinator, Priority Africa Network
Gerald Lenoir, BAJI Director
Dr. Amahra Hicks, Community Activist
Denise Gums, Community Activist
Angela Romero, Community Activist
Nicole Valentino, Aide, Mayor of Richmond, Calif.