For many immigrants, particularly those of African descent, losing their temporary protection status (TPS) could become a reality if former President Donald Trump is reelected, according to his statement in a recent News Nation interview. However, one expert in diplomacy told concerned participants at Voice of America Africa’s town hall on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C., that voter turnout plays a crucial role in halting Trump’s plans.
“You have to reach out; you have to participate; you have to because this election is a test of democracy — and from what you are reading in the press, some people are trying to remove our citizenship and deport us,” Philomena Desmond-Ogugua, chair of the Virginia African Diaspora Committee and a town hall panelist, said.
In the past, Trump has vowed to end “birthright citizenship” for those already living in the U.S., according to CBS News. Trump and his surrogates have continued to target immigrant communities with controversial policy proposals, with Donald Trump Jr. saying in an interview with Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice, a conservative broadcasting network, that bringing in immigrants from a third-world country would make the U.S. intellectually inferior.
“You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average IQ — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world,” Trump Jr. said. “That’s just basic. It’s not racist. It’s just fact.”
Considering Trump and his followers’ views, Desmond-Ogugua urged town hall audience members to vote on matters that do not harm the African diaspora.
“Which of the two people who are running address our needs better?” she asked the crowd.
For Gnaka Lagoke, an Ivorian citizen, those needs include economic sovereignty for Africa. He asked whether the U.S. is taking into account voices from Africa who want “freedom” from interference of an outside government.
“As a Pan-Africanist, I just wanted them to know that this is a growing movement and momentum on the continent,” Gnaka, an associate professor on Pan-Africana studies and history at Lincoln University, told The Informer.
Pan-Africanism aims to remove white supremacy from Africa.
The U.S. has positioned itself as an ally to Africa and will not take a step back from its involvement in the continent. The Biden administration supports two African nations holding two permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. The only caveat is that those nations would not have veto power. The U.S. does not want to give Africa veto power because it argues it would make the council “more dysfunctional.”
The current countries with permanent seats on the Security Council are China, Russia, France, the U.S. and Britain.
Kwaku Nuamah, a senior lecturer at American University in the School of International Service and panelist, emphasized the U.S. partnership with Africa and said the “administration got Africa a seat at the G20.”
During the town hall, he also stressed the importance of not wasting a vote and measuring each candidate’s ability to give voters “a good deal.” A good deal could mean improving conflict in strife-prone African regions with the assistance of the U.S.
African countries have been making demands and the U.S. has been “largely receptive to some of those demands,”Nuamah also said referencing the U.S.’s involvement in quelling conflicts within countries on the continent through diplomacy.
Africa as a Global Leader, Supplier
Peter Pham, a former diplomat, shifted the narrative about conflict in certain parts of Africa to the world’s reliability on the continent.
Africa, like other continents, faces “many conflicts and humanitarian challenges. There are economic challenges in Africa, but that’s only a small part of the picture,” Pham, the former special envoy for the Sahel region and Great Lakes regions of Africa and panelist, told audience members.
“People need to realize and need to be informed that without Africa, without the mineral wealth the continent has, there is no green energy transition, there is no future technology,” he added. “We cannot do it without Africa.”
Pham’s words underscore Africa’s indispensable role on the global stage.
In America, the African diaspora has grown tremendously, with the Pew Research Center citing a new “arrival of new immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere being an important contributor to Black population growth.” That report shows that in 2022, there were 5.1 million Black immigrants in the U.S., up from 2.4 million in 2000.
Although these numbers represent a large voting bloc in the U.S., the African diaspora is rarely given a platform on TV to discuss election issues that affect them, like immigration, among other things.
While he sees some intentional work happening, Voice of America Africa Division Director Salwa Jaafari said “not enough” Africans in the U.S. are given adequate attention to voice their concerns.
“I mean, let’s be honest, we watch American TV all the time, I rarely see anyone talk about Africa. I think Voice of America is one of the leaders in this area,” Jaafari noted. “I wish there were more shows for the African diaspora to talk about, any issue really, not just the U.S. election.”