STATEMENT OF THE IMMIGRANT COALITION OF RHODE ISLAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIVES

The Immigrant Coalition of Rhode Island joins others in our community to honor the lives of George Floyd of Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor and David McAtee of Louisville, Tony McDade and Mychael Johnson of Tallahassee, and Ahmaud Arbery of Glyn County, Georgia and all Black lives taken by police violence.  

We are in solidarity with Black people demanding justice in Rhode Island and across the country. The Immigrant Coalition’s mission is to support our immigrant community by providing reliable information, resources, and advocacy on issues that impact all immigrants and particularly undocumented people. While the Immigrant Coalition’s work is not centered in criminal justice or combating police violence, we cannot ignore the systems of oppression that are enforced through links between local law enforcement departments and ICE. Through our members’ work, we know Black migrants are targeted for higher rates of imprisonment--first by local prisons and then by immigration detention centers. We acknowledge that within the ‘crimmigration system’, and in any other context, Black bodies are always hyper-criminalized due to anti-Blackness.

We call for the end to these discriminatory and racist systems and stand in solidarity with those in the community fighting to defend Black lives.

Black Lives Matter.

In Solidarity,

The Immigrant Coalition of Rhode Island