Black women and girls: At the centre of the violence upholding modern-day border controls
Anti-Black racism has driven the development of modern-day border controls and immigration processes in our globalised world, and Black women and girls have suffered particular harms in the Americas as a result. This session highlighted how the Darien Gap in Panama has become an epicentre of structural violence against Black women and girls, and educated on their experiences in US detention and along the US-Mexico border. It connected anti-Black racism in border control in the Americas with other global contexts in order to build capacity for global solidarity, advocacy, and change.
Speakers
Guerline Jozef is a human rights advocate who dedicates her life to bringing awareness to issues that affect us all locally and globally, such as immigration, domestic violence and child sexual abuse. She was named one of POLITICO’s 2021 40 most influential people on race, politics, and policy in the United States for her leadership, and has received the Las Americas’ 2021 Border Heroes Award, the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2022 National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network Community Champion Award and the 2022 American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award.
Seydi Sarr is an award-winning social justice advocate, human rights activist, and curator of equitable practices through lived experiences. She is the founder and helmswomxn of the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs, and co-founder of the Black Immigrant Bail Fund. A Senegalese native, she advocates at the intersections of racial, immigration, socio-economy, religious, and gender issues, and curates the vision of a multicultural, multifaceted society built on acknowledgement, understanding, courage, transformation, and service. Seydi is a court interpreter, an alumna of the Detroit Equity Action Lab fellow, a Michigan Political Leadership Program fellow, and a New American Leaders fellow.
Dahene Gustave is the humanitarian director at Haitian Bridge Alliance, leading the team of HBA organisers providing humanitarian support to children, families, and people stranded at the US-Mexico border in squalid conditions, where Black migrants face pervasive anti-Blackness that add additional barriers to accessing basic services like food, water, housing, mental health and culturally appropriate healthcare. For 15 years prior to joining HBA, Dahene worked pro bono to fight for the rights and humane treatment of immigrants and minority groups, advocating for fair policies, providing interpretation and translation services, and aiding migrants in finding resources and integrating into the US system.
Chevalier Hergie is a physician practising at the Immaculee Hospital in Les Cayes in the south of Haiti. She is the co-representative of EqualHealth’s Campaign Against Racism (CAR) chapter of Haiti, and she is the treasurer of SocMed Alumni of Haiti (SMAH).
