02 Mar 2023 Illegal Immigration Particularly Hurts Black Americans
“The permissive attitude of our political leaders toward illegal immigration… is devastating America’s Black communities,” write Project 21 Chairman Horace Cooper and Tom Homan in The Washington Times.
Sanctuary city policies that attract illegal immigrants have made urban neighborhoods increasingly unsafe:
While most of those people may be nonviolent, among that population is a criminal element from gangs such as MS-13, the 18th Street Gang and others. This element preys not only on others here illegally but anyone in densely populated urban areas, which largely includes Black Americans.
One of the worst examples of this is taking place in Chicago. Under its absentee landlord, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago has become a lawless hellscape where weekends of double-digit shooting victims are the norm….
Not coincidentally, Ms. Lightfoot is a vocal supporter of sanctuary policies in Chicago.
Gang members also contribute to a deadly influx of drugs:
Already challenged with a failing public school system and runaway crime, the last thing the Black population of Chicago needs is a city flooded with illegal drugs from gang members that should not be in the country at all.
Black Americans also suffer economically from high levels of illegal immigration:
Black Americans are hit especially hard because illegal immigrants compete disproportionately for jobs held by Blacks….
Blacks have lost out on job opportunities to the illegal immigrant labor pool. Unemployment or even super underemployment creates significant hurdles to marriage in the Black community and leads to greater levels of poverty for Black youth.
Worse, it correlates with higher levels of incarceration.
Cooper and the Project 21 black leadership network recently released a comprehensive study, “What Immigration Policy Means for Black America.” Tom Homan is a senior fellow at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Read their entire commentary here.