Jamal Bryant says we must ‘have an agenda for the diaspora’ in the fight against Trump’s immigration policies

“We have been deluded into believing it is a Latino and Mexican issue,” Jamal Bryant stresses immigration’s impact on Black communities.

Jamal Bryant is advocating for more than just the rehabilitation of DEI initiatives at Target. During a recent panel discussion with Symone Sanders at the NAACP’s 116th national convention, Pastor Bryant stressed to audiences that the Trump administration’s rapid changes to immigration policies impact Black communities just as much as they can impact Hispanic communities. 

“We have been deluded into believing that immigration is a Latino and Mexican issue,” he said. “There are 500,000 Haitians [who] are unprotected, 250,000 Jamaicans who are about to be on the watch list. And they want to hear, will the nation’s largest, biggest, strongest civil rights organization [say] anything about immigration?”

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Since his return to the Oval Office, President Trump has accelerated deportation efforts, giving ICE agents full authority to defend themselves by “whatever means necessary” against the communities he refers to as “thugs.” Immigration is only one of the plethora of points in the Trump administration’s agenda, and every day since he has gotten into office it feels as though new changes are being made. 

With a continuous influx of headlines noting budget cuts, government agency layoffs, and legislation stripping citizens of health care and more, many Americans, especially those in the Black community, have taken a step back from the fight for our civil rights. And while the socio-political fatigue is understandable, Bryant emphasized the need for Black communities to unite. 

Unfortunately, many social media users disagreed with the religious leader’s push for all Black communities from across the diaspora to join the fight against Trump’s immigration policies. 

“Many in the diaspora don’t even like black Americans,” one user noted. 

“Sorry but the civil rights orgs were for Blk Americans. Why do Blk Americans have to be the mouthpiece for every other group? We do we owe them our advocacy and political capital? WE DONT!!!! The Democrats have already put immigrants before Blk Americans,” another skeptic commented. 

Conversely, some social media users applauded Bryant for his statements, noting how prominent Black civil rights leaders in the US came from immigrant backgrounds, like Malcom X, whose mother was Grenadian, Shirley Chisholm, whose parents immigrated from Barbabos and Guyana, Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born Black nationalist, and more.  

“How quickly many of you will learn that most of your idols, co-workers, and community members are Black from the diaspora, and not American-born. Many of us [are] only second-generation Americans. SMH,” another user highlighted. “What is happening to one of us can quickly become all of us. Understand liberation.” 

However, for Bryant, the fight goes beyond the fight against immigration. 

“There is no way we would have this many Jews in a room and Israel not being on the agenda. 

So we gotta have an agenda for the diaspora that speaks to advocacy and how do we do trade,” Bryant added. “This economy is about to topple, but there are three stock markets in Africa, and we’re saying nothing about it.” 

“It requires of us a strategy. The only way we’re going to make money in America is real estate and entrepreneurship. If we are not doing something around entrepreneurship for our young people and doing something about land ownership, we will perpetually be renters,” he concluded.