Yacouba, a political activist in Ivory Coast, knew if he didnt immediately flee his home country, he wouldnt survive.

After being threatened, attacked and tortured by people sympathetic to those in power, Yacouba fled his country in 2018. He went to Brazil for a few years, then made a perilous trek through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico before finally arriving in the United States.

The journey was one of the two most challenging periods of his life. The second was being detained as a Black immigrant in the U.S.

As the nation celebrates Juneteenth a day commemorating the emancipation of African Americans who had been enslaved in the United States as a federal holiday for the first time , Black Americans and immigrants are fighting to dismantle institutional racism, including within the immigration system. Black immigrants are disproportionately detained, receive higher bond costs , and say they face racist treatment within detention centers.

Recognizing and celebrating the emancipation of slaves is vital, activists say but continuing to take down systemic racism needs to come with it.

From an immigration perspective, Black immigrants face disproportionate levels of detention and exclusion, Diana Konate, policy director at the advocacy group African Communities Together, said Thursday on a press call. These can be life-threatening, as Black immigrants often get deported back to unsafe and dangerous conditions. While we celebrate the victories, we keep in mind that a lot of work remains.

Immigration As A Black Issue

More than 40 million Black Americans reside in the U.S. More than 4.2 million are Black immigrants, most of whom were born in the Caribbean or African nations, and that number is only growing, according to a 2018 Pew Research Study .

Although Black native-born Americans and Black immigrant communities have their differences, both contend with high levels of discrimination and the lingering impacts of slavery and institutionalized racism.

The reality is, as we are celebrating, we want to take the time to honor our ancestors who paid the price for us to be here as a Black immigrant, an immigrant descendant of slaves, said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of a coalition to help Haitian immigrants called the Haitian Bridge Alliance. I understand and honor those who have come before.