Watch: Black immigrant advocate has message for Harris Walz campaign

The head of a leading black immigrant rights group has harsh words for both the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns.

On this week’s “The Hill with April Ryan,” Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), points out the racist conspiracies and policy positions that Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance have taken toward Haitian immigrants represent . The ordeal has led to a criminal complaint from the advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance.

Gyamfi also spoke harshly about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, whose campaign she criticized for being too focused on an “enforcement framework.” She said Harris’ rhetoric and policies were simply “uninviting.”

On Friday, Harris traveled to the Arizona-Mexico border to address issues of illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Harris walked over the section of wall that was built during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

While in Arizona, the sitting vice president gave a speech in which she criticized Trump for a lack of effort to address the immigration crisis, including his alleged efforts to get Republicans in Congress to block bipartisan legislation to improve border enforcement.

Gyamfi told TheGrio that BAJI wants to see a “complete reversal of the frame” in the way political leaders approach the issue of immigration, particularly when it comes to black migrants. She rejected the Harris-Walz campaign’s call for more surveillance and border protection.

“What the United States is telling the rest of the world — and has been saying for decades — is that you can come here for the opportunity to thrive, to live that sweet life, right, to have the best life.” , explained Gyamfi. “That’s not what immigration policy looks like right now.”

Of Vice President Harris, she said, “She knows what her parents hoped for. She knows who she has become because her parents had the opportunity.”

Gymafi continued: “It is a shame that this was denied to others, including hers.” [father’s] … homeland Jamaica.”

The immigrant community, she said, “expects and wants” Harris to “remember how … her people came.” Gyamfi added: “And because they came, she is now able to be in this position. This door should be opened wider, not closed.”

Regarding the criminal complaint filed against Trump and Vance in Springfield, Ohio, the attorney said no one is immune from responsibility.

“I think it’s important for people, including political candidates — even if they’re running for president or vice president of the United States — to understand that they cannot act with complete and absolute immunity,” Gyamfi said.

lifestyle