BAJI Press Statement & Release on Trump’s Racist Travel Ban to African Nations
BAJI Denounces Trump’s Proposed Expansion of Travel Ban: “A Racist Attack on African and Caribbean Nations and Black Migrants”
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK— The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) condemns the Trump administration’s proposal to expand its travel ban to include 36 additional countries, most of them in Africa and Caribbean — including Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Egypt, three of Africa’s most populous nations.
This expansion, detailed in an internal State Department cable and reported by The New York Times, continues a pattern of anti-Black, anti-immigrant policy under the guise of national security. The administration has given these countries 60 days to comply with vague demands or face full travel bans.
“This is not about safety — it’s about racial exclusion,” said Nana Gyamfi, BAJI’s Executive Director. “Once again, Black migrants are being scapegoated and used as political pawns in a white nationalist fascist agenda.”
The administration’s justifications — questioning government competence, document security, or rates of visa overstays — are deeply racialized and mirror the colonial framing that has historically cast African nations as inherently deficient or dangerous.
In a chilling twist, the U.S. is also pressuring targeted countries to accept deportees from other nations or act as “safe third countries” in exchange for avoiding a ban. This amounts to blackmail. This administration will leverage the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows the U.S. to deport people to third countries and force these countries to be apparatus for the U.S. mass incarceration system.
BAJI Denounces Trump’s Proposed Expansion of Travel Ban: “A Racist Attack on African and Caribbean Nations and Black Migrants”
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK— The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) condemns the Trump administration’s proposal to expand its travel ban to include 36 additional countries, most of them in Africa and Caribbean — including Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Egypt, three of Africa’s most populous nations.
This expansion, detailed in an internal State Department cable and reported by The New York Times, continues a pattern of anti-Black, anti-immigrant policy under the guise of national security. The administration has given these countries 60 days to comply with vague demands or face full travel bans.
“This is not about safety — it’s about racial exclusion,” said Nana Gyamfi, BAJI’s Executive Director. “Once again, Black migrants are being scapegoated and used as political pawns in a white nationalist fascist agenda.”
The administration’s justifications — questioning government competence, document security, or rates of visa overstays — are deeply racialized and mirror the colonial framing that has historically cast African nations as inherently deficient or dangerous.
In a chilling twist, the U.S. is also pressuring targeted countries to accept deportees from other nations or act as “safe third countries” in exchange for avoiding a ban. This amounts to blackmail. This administration will leverage the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows the U.S. to deport people to third countries and force these countries to be apparatus for the U.S. mass incarceration system.