Interconnected Struggles for Justice
As we continue to witness growing anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacks, through ICE raids, restrictive policies, and harmful public discourse, we also see many people rising up to protect and defend immigrant communities. This is not just an immigrant issue; it’s a human rights issue. Our struggles for justice are deeply interconnected, and the fight for immigrant rights is part of a long legacy of resistance, building directly on the foundation laid by the Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement, while focused on achieving equality for African Americans, sparked legal, political, and cultural shifts that have benefited all marginalized communities, including immigrants. It helped expand our understanding of what civil rights mean in the U.S., shifting the national conversation around inclusion, protection, and justice.
One of the movement’s most significant victories was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. While it was a crucial step in addressing systemic racism against Black Americans, it also laid the groundwork for future protections that continue to support immigrants facing discrimination in employment, education, housing, and access to public services.
Another transformative outcome was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. This legislation abolished the racist national origins quota system, which had severely limited immigration from non-European countries. Passed in the wake of civil rights victories, this law reshaped the demographic makeup of the U.S. by opening the doors to immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and beyond.
We also see the connection in the courts. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This affirmed every child’s right to equal education. Decades later, Plyler v. Doe (1982) extended that right to undocumented children, ruling that they, too, could not be denied access to free public education. Though one case addressed race and the other immigration status, both affirmed the same core value: every child deserves access to learning, regardless of background.
Today, the oppression of Black and immigrant communities continues, often in parallel and intertwined ways. Both face systemic barriers, including over-policing, under-resourcing, and structural violence. One striking similarity is in their disproportionate incarceration and detention.
Black Americans make up just 13% of the U.S. population but represent 37% of those incarcerated. Racial profiling remains rampant. According to the ACLU, 41% of Black Americans say they have been stopped or detained by police because of their race, and 21%, including 30% of Black men, report being victims of police violence.
In immigrant communities, racial profiling and detentions are on the rise. More and more people—immigrants and non-immigrants alike are being targeted simply for being brown or Hispanic, often assumed to be undocumented. Both Black and undocumented communities experience systemic violence through incarceration, detainment, and family separation.
When we take a step back, we can see that these issues are two sides of the same coin. Prisons and detention centers are systems built to dehumanize and profit. Those who operate them profit directly from our suffering, our separation, and our stolen freedom. These systems were not designed to protect us, they were designed to control and harm us.
That’s why our liberation must be collective. We cannot fight for immigrant justice without also fighting to dismantle anti-Black racism. We cannot fight to end detention without also confronting mass incarceration. These struggles are deeply connected, and so are our paths to freedom.
Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/crt/fcs/TitleVI
https://asianamericanedu.org/immigration-and-nationality-act-of-1965.html
https://www.facingsouth.org/2017/02/how-civil-rights-movement-opened-door-immigrants-color
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/racial_and_ethnic_disparities/
https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/irca \
https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/racial-profiling
