Africa Life center ( ALC) releases the 2022 Voter Educational and Mobilization Video of the current NYC Ballot Initiative. We urge all members of the African Community to flip your ballot on Election Day and vote for the 3 ballot questions aimed at increasing Racial Equity in NYC: 1) Add a statement of values to the city’s charter. 2) Create a racial equity office, plan & commission 3) Measure the true coast of living. Learn more …. [video width="780" height="552" mp4="https://theafricanjournalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/racialjustice.mp4"][/video] Read more
Sankara’s Orphans — award-winning documentary — comes to Harlem May 21
Sankara's Orphans, an award-winning documentary by Geraldine Berger, will be featured Saturday, May 21, at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem. The screening is sponsored by the 29th New York African Film Festival in conjunction with The Africa Center of New York. The film tells the story of 600 youth from Burkina Faso in West Africa who went to study in Cuba in 1986 during the 1983-87 Burkina Faso Revolution led by Thomas Sankara. The Cuban government, headed by Fidel Castro, offered them an education to learn a profession or trade and then return to help develop their country, one of the poorest in the world. The documentary describes who was chosen to study in Cuba and why. It shows how the Cuban people worked with the Burkinabè youth, the relationship between the two countries and revolutions, and between Castro and Sankara. Viewers get a chance to see Thomas Sankara, a... Read more
Mayor’s office of Immigrant Affairs is celebrating Immigrant Heritage Week ( IHW) in the midst of covid – 19
Today, as we kick off our annual Immigrant Heritage Week (IHW), we are proud to join in recognizing our city’s essential workers as the super heroes they have always been. Among the one million essential workers who are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic—delivery workers, EMS staff, drivers, health care personnel, and more—half are immigrants. In this spirit, this year’s IHW—running through April 19 and featuring virtual opportunities—is dedicated to those 500,000 immigrant New Yorkers who are keeping city running every day. At the center of our new IHW multimedia content is the IHW 2020 logo created by Brooklyn-based, immigrant artist Feifei Ruan. This logo represents our solidarity during these unprecedented times and heartfelt gratitude. We invite you to join us in thanking our essential immigrant workers, celebrating New York City’s legacy as a city of immigrants, and engaging your communities by: 1 Using MOIA’s IHW 2020 Social Media Toolkit, which includes the IHW 2020 logo and sample... Read more
Trump’s Latest Immigration Plan Targets African Immigrants
The Trump administration is considering a new immigration measure to impose visa restrictions on countries whose citizens have a track record of overstaying beyond the validity of their short-term US visas, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. As part of the proposed measure being discussed by senior White House officials, visas could become harder to get for applicants from countries with high rates of overstaying visas and, when issued, the visa validity periods could also become shorter. In the long-term, such countries could also face outright bans. WSJ also reports that the White House is looking to tighten rules around student and investor visas. As it turns out, several African countries whose nationals have high rates of overstaying their visas, including Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, could be on the receiving end if the measure, which will likely be legally challenged, is seen through. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country,... Read more
Immigration: These 10 new rules make it much more difficult to become a legal immigrant in the U.S.
The U.S. immigration system has undergone numerous changes under the Trump administration, which have strengthened the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to enforce immigration law. As a result, the legal immigration process has become far more rigorous. Implementing these changes falls largely to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) through a combination of rules, policy memorandums and operational changes. “Our goal is to apply the nation’s immigration law effectively, efficiently, and lawfully,” the federal agency said recently as it shared a list of the 10 ways it works to improve the integrity of the system — thereby tightening the review of applications for immigration benefits. ENFORCE POLICY GUIDANCE ON DEPORTATIONS There’s a new Trump administration guidance that expands the list of reasons for which immigrants can be sent before immigration judges to start deportation procedures against them, after the issuance of summonses known as Notice to Appear, or NTAs. The change affects particularly legal... Read more
President Trump wants to end immigration benefits, and a judge says no
A federal judge’s ruling blocking a Trump administration order to end immigration benefits for nearly 300,000 foreign nationals is the latest in a series of judicial setbacks for the Trump administration's immigration policies. Federal District Judge Edward Chen late Wednesday blocked the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) order to end temporary protected status (TPS) that allows citizens of Sudan, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua to live and work in the United States, raising hopes for activists who have fought to make the program permanent. The preliminary injunction granted by Chen, an appointee of former President Obama, follows a trend of court reversals that have slowed the administration's proposed overhaul of American immigration laws. The administration's first judicial setbacks on immigration came weeks into Trump's presidency, as a New York court stopped in January of 2017 the application of the first version of a travel ban that blocked immigrants and visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries. After... Read more
Immigrants, fearing Trump crackdown, drop out of nutrition programs
Both documented and undocumented immigrants fear that accepting federal aid could make them ineligible for a green card if rules are changed. Immigrants are turning down government help to buy infant formula and healthy food for their young children because they’re afraid the Trump administration could bar them from getting a green card if they take federal aid. Local health providers say they’ve received panicked phone calls from both documented and undocumented immigrant families demanding to be dropped from the rolls of WIC, a federal nutrition program aimed at pregnant women and children, after news reports that the White House is potentially planning to deny legal status to immigrants who’ve used public benefits. Agencies in at least 18 states say they’ve seen drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment, and they attribute the change largely to fears about the immigration policy. The Trump administration hasn’t officially put the policy... Read more
Obama, like Trump, grappled with family immigration
By : Associated Press
The Trump administration isn't the first to grapple with the question of how to handle tens of thousands of immigrant families stopped along the U.S.-Mexico border. Four years ago, Barack Obama faced a similar crisis when record numbers of Central American immigrants fleeing violence began showing up at the border. Officials had to deal with the same court case the current administration began fighting Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump issued a new executive order to stop separating migrant families whose parents were arrested for illegally entering the country. More than 60,000 family "units" — which the U.S. government defines as a parent and child — were stopped along the border in the 2014 fiscal year, a fourfold increase from a year earlier. In the last fiscal year, that number exceeded 70,000. Initially, the Obama administration released mothers and children with notices to appear in immigration courts in the... Read more
American Dream “is a nameless destiny.”
By : Bazona Barnabé Bado
New York City’s West African immigrants have crossed borders and oceans with a dream etched in their minds. After landing in the United States of America, many of them have realized they may have to adjust their expectations. As few have achieved their dreams, many still gazes at the horizon with hope and courage as they survive hardships and overcome hurdles. They have to go for the “Promise Land” to fulfill a dream no matter what as that Cape Verdean (West Africa) song depicts it: “Here I am, in the middle of the ocean on my way to America. Going to a distant land is a man’s destiny. It is a nameless destiny that we must fulfill.” Sitting comfortably in a chair, seat belt entirely buckled, Imam Souleymane Konate opens his eyes after one hour of flying and sighs. He is optimistic that his dream to study communications in New... Read more