Last Friday, 10 days before President Biden’s official departure from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security announced new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extensions for El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela. But protections for Black migrants from Central Africa were excluded. This is a glaring missed opportunity for racial justice.
TPS allows migrants from countries considered unsafe to live and work in the United States for a temporary period.
The TPS deadlines before the announcement further highlight the inequity:
- El Salvador – March 9, 2025
- Sudan and Ukraine – April 19, 2025
- South Sudan – May 3, 2025
- Cameroon – June 7, 2025
- Venezuela – September 10, 2025
- Ethiopia – December 12, 2025
- Haiti – February 3, 2026
During his last address to the Department of State a week and a half ago, Biden touted the United States’ economic investment in Africa, an announcement he made during his final international trip to Angola in early December. Systemic neglect persists even as the United States invests billions in African infrastructure projects, such as the Lobito Corridor in Angola, revealing the stark hypocrisy in prioritizing economic gain over human rights.
As an engagement journalist and disinformation researcher, I recognize this exclusion as a direct affront to racial justice and a victory for those perpetuating anti-Black narratives.
Since November, I have served as a volunteer media strategist for the Cameroon American Council (CAC), a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for Central African migrants. During this time, I’ve witnessed Sylvie Qwasinwi Ngassa Bello, CAC’s founder, champion the needs of these vulnerable communities who face disproportionate detention and deportation rates with tireless determination. Her frustration with politicians and the media is palpable — and after Friday’s DHS announcement, entirely justified.
Cubans and Nicaraguans receive humanitarian parole; Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Ukraine have both TPS and humanitarian parole, providing a dual layer of protection.
Though granted TPS, Ethiopia, Haiti, and South Sudan face expiration dates within a year, leaving their communities in precarious situations.
Despite Cameroon’s significant violence and political instability, confirmed by recent State Department travel advisories, it remains without TPS redesignation or humanitarian parole.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola are facing similar humanitarian crises yet remain entirely excluded from protection.
With Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, targeting metropolises like New York and Chicago for mass deportations, the Biden administration has one last opportunity to protect the most vulnerable immigrants: Black migrants fleeing violence and persecution.
A path forward: TPS and humanitarian parole
TPS would grant migrants from these countries the safety and the ability to work in the United States, and humanitarian parole could reunite families.
Nicolau “Nico” Cucubica, a 55-year-old Angolan living in Maine, is undocumented and fled persecution in 2019 only to endure 19 months of detention. “Five times they tried to deport me,” he recalled. Each time, he feared death if sent back.
Despite using parole for Afghans, Ukrainians, and others, the Biden administration has excluded African nations, underscoring the systemic inequities that treat African lives as less valuable.
Angolan gospel singer Ana Mavungo, who lives in Maine, fled persecution for her activism. “I came here to save my life,” she said, but she’s separated from her children. While Nico reunited with his family, he faces an uncertain future.
Maine’s welcoming communities exemplify the potential for compassion but cannot overshadow broader policy failures. As Bello noted, “Why is it that Black pain doesn’t meet restitution or immigration relief?”
Advocating for humanity
Last year, CAC urged Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to introduce the U.S. Senate version of House Resolution 1048, a measure calling for humanitarian parole for Cameroonian migrants, to no avail.
In early December, following a conversation with CAC, Washington, D.C., City Councilmember Zachary Parker issued a public statement urging the administration to protect African immigrants in his district and nationwide.
And days later, in a statement to the CAC, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, also pressed Biden to act: “With just weeks left in his presidency, I hope President Biden will act decisively to secure these critical protections, especially as immigrants in Maine and across the country face mounting threats from the next administration.”
The omission by DHS is glaring and underscores a history of systemic racism in U.S. immigration policy.
A legacy of exclusion
In his 1966 book, “White By Law,” Ian Haney López noted how the United States “is ideologically a white country not by accident, but by design at least in part affected through naturalization and immigration laws.”
For 160 years, from 1792 to 1952, “Congress made it possible for state and federal law to grant political and economic rights to white immigrants immediately upon arrival while ensuring that non-white immigrants could never enjoy them,” read a paper in the William and Mary Law Review.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred most Chinese immigrants, and the Immigration Act of 1924 created national origins quotas favoring Northern Europeans while severely restricting immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and eliminated all immigration for most non-white people, a system that persisted until 1965. Policies like “Operation Wetback” in 1954 forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican ancestry. These policies reflect a long-standing pattern of exclusion targeting non-white populations and speak to the dire importance of presidential intervention.
The administration’s swift response to Ukrainian migrants in 2022 demonstrates its capacity for transformative action. Central African migrants deserve the same urgent protections that would affirm racial equity and align humanitarian actions with U.S. investments in Africa.
The contradiction of U.S. policy
During Biden’s December visit to Angola, he announced another $600 million for the Lobito railway project traversing routes once used in the Transatlantic slave trade. The contradiction is staggering: While investing billions in African infrastructure, the U.S. neglects African migrants fleeing violence.
Meanwhile, USAID’s $1 billion aid package addresses food insecurity in Africa but does little for migrants facing immediate danger. A December State Department advisory warns of severe violence in Cameroon, highlighting the need for urgent action. Extending TPS and humanitarian parole to Central Africans is not just an act of justice — it’s a necessity.
Congressional leaders, including New York Democrats Adriano Espaillat and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, urged Biden in early 2024 to establish a humanitarian parole program for Cameroon with House Resolution 1048, pushing back against this anti-Africanness.
Disinformation and anti-Black narratives
Global systemic anti-Blackness in immigration is compounded by disinformation that dehumanizes African migrants. Online narratives often portray them as economic burdens or criminals, echoing xenophobic propaganda.
For the Oxford Internet Institute, I discussed how racialized disinformation was effectively weaponized during the 2024 election when President-elect Trump amplified Vice President-elect JD Vance’s baseless claims about Haitian immigrants “eating cats and dogs.” This anti-Black disinformation created hostile environments for Black migrants in other states, spurred xenophobic sentiment online, and put all of Springfield’s residents at risk, as reflected by the bomb threats throughout the city.
Studies show that such rhetoric makes African migrants more vulnerable to harassment, detention, and deportation while legitimizing policies that deprioritize protections for Black migrants.
Combating these narratives is about more than countering disinformation; it is about reaffirming the humanity and dignity of African migrants through equitable immigration reforms.
A final appeal
Biden stands at a crossroads. He has days left in his presidency to dismantle the legacy of exploiting Black labor while denying Black humanity — or he can remain complicit in these injustices.
The time to act is now.
Diara J. Townes is an engagement journalist, disinformation researcher, and adjunct at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. She is also a media consultant who volunteers with the Cameroon American Council.
This piece originally appeared here in the New York Amsterdam News.
