NBJC Condemns Supreme Court Decision Allowing Trump Administration to End Temporary Protected Status
CONTACT: Jordan Wilhelmi | jordan@unbendablemedia.com
WASHINGTON — Dr. David J. Johns, CEO & Executive Director of the National Black Justice Collective (NBJC), issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants:
“The Supreme Court’s decision is a devastating abandonment of people who have already survived war, political instability, natural disasters, and human rights persecution. For Black LGBTQ+/Same-Gender Loving (SGL) people across the African diaspora, this ruling deepens an already impossible reality. Many are forced to flee countries where they face criminalization, imprisonment, and violence simply for existing, only to find doors to safety closing elsewhere.
“The United States has long recognized that some places are too dangerous for people to return safely. This ruling weakens that promise at the very moment LGBTQ+/SGL people around the world are facing escalating attacks on their safety, dignity, and freedom.
“These immigrants are our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, caregivers, entrepreneurs, faith leaders, and friends who have built lives, families, and communities here while contributing to the strength of this country. Stripping away their protections does nothing to make America safer. It simply advances a political agenda focused on racial bias when it comes to which refugees deserve safe harbor and increasing deportation numbers at the expense of human dignity, compassion, and common decency.
“No government can claim to champion human rights while turning away people whose lives are at risk. We call on the United States and every nation committed to democracy, dignity, and equal protection to reject policies rooted in fear and exclusion, protect those seeking safety, and ensure that freedom does not stop at a border. History will remember whether we chose compassion over cruelty and protection over persecution.”
Earlier this month, NBJC published an open letter urging Ghana’s leadership not to enact legislation that would criminalize LGBTQ+/SGL people, arguing that nations cannot simultaneously champion reparative justice while denying safety and dignity to queer and transgender members of the African diaspora.
NBJC continues to call on governments around the world to protect people fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and to ensure that the promise of freedom extends to all.