Watch: Black immigrant advocate has a message for Harris-Walz campaign
On “The Hill with April Ryan,” Nana Gyamfi, executive director at Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said advocates want a “complete flipping of the frame” on how leaders address the issue of immigration.
The head of a leading Black immigrant rights group has tough words for both the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns.
On this week’s “The Hill with April Ryan,” Nana Gyamfi, executive director at Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), calls out the racist conspiracies and policy positions pushed about Haitian immigrants by Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees Donald Trump and JD Vance. The ordeal has led to a criminal complaint filed by the advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance.
Gyamfi equally had stern words for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, whose campaign she criticized for being too focused on an “enforcement frame.” She said Harris’s rhetoric and policies are simply “not welcoming.”
On Friday, Harris traveled to the Arizona-Mexico border to focus on the issues of illegal immigration there and the trafficking of illicit drugs. Harris walked the stretch of wall built during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
While in Arizona, the sitting vice president delivered a speech blasting Trump for what she said was a lack of effort to address the immigration crisis, including his reported efforts to get Republicans in Congress to block bipartisan legislation to better enforce the border.
DOUGLAS, ARIZONA – SEPTEMBER 27: Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during a campaign event at Cochise College Douglas Campus on September 27, 2024 in Douglas, Arizona. With 38 days until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning over the weekend in Arizona, California and Nevada. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Gyamfi told theGrio that BAJI wants to see a “complete flipping of the frame” on how political leaders address the issue of immigration, particularly as it relates to Black migrants. She dismissed the Harris-Walz campaign’s call for more surveillance and border agents.
“What the United States tells the rest of the world–and it’s done so for decades–is you can come here for that opportunity to flourish, to live that sweet life, right, to have your best life,” declared Gyamfi. “That is not what immigration policies look like right now.”
She said of Vice President Harris: “She knows what her parents were hoping for. She knows who she has become as a result of the capacity, the opportunity for her parents to have that.”
Gymafi continued, “It’s a shame that has been denied to others, including folks from her [father’s] … home country of Jamaica.”
The immigrant community, she said, is “expecting and wanting” Harris to “remember how … her people came.” Gyamfi added, “And because they came, she’s able to be in that position right now. That door should be opened even further, not closed.”
As for the criminal complaint filed against Trump and Vance in Springfield, Ohio, the advocate said no one is immune from accountability.
“I think it is important for people, including political candidates–even if they’re running for president or vice president of the United States–to understand that they don’t get to act with complete and absolute immunity,” said Gyamfi.