On January 28, 2021, under the cover of darkness, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hurriedly deported half a dozen chained and horrified Black immigrants from Alexandria, Louisiana to Kingston, Jamaica. Since then, several deportation flights have been scheduled to deport up to 1,800 people to Angola, Cameroon, Congo, and Haiti.

This came on the heels of Texas District Judge Drew Tipton’s unjust temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt the implementation of President Biden’s executive order that placed a 100-day moratorium on deportations. This latest deportation further affirms that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to inflict two weeks of continued pain and suffering on Black and brown immigrants during the fourteen-day TRO.

However, the TRO does not require ICE to deport people with final orders of removal. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) still have the power to grant stays of removal on an individual basis, and they should use their prosecutorial discretion and the new, narrow enforcement priorities to do so. DHS also should grant the right of return to all deported people on iAero Airways Flight 3562.

The Biden administration made a critical first step towards beginning to address exactly what is wrong with the immigration system, instead of barreling ahead using misguided and cruel removal priorities and policies. The moratorium represented a previously-unimaginable collective exhale from thousands of Black and brown people -- both those in detention and their communities of support. However, President Biden has the power to stop the deportation flights.  

We must collectively put pressure on the President and DHS to stop deporting our community members and return all deported community members on recent deportation flights to African and Caribbean countries.

Sign the petition: Urge DHS to halt ALL deportations and return all people on deportation flights to African and Caribbean countries.