It’s been over two years since Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that the Department of Homeland Security was exploring Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Mauritania. This measure would save lives, and has bipartisan support. Instead, the Biden administration has resumed deportation charter flights to Mauritania, despite long-standing bipartisan agreement to not deport Mauritanians from the U.S. due to the prevalence of horrific race and ethnicity-based human rights violations—including enslavement, forced statelessness, and ethnic cleansing. One deportation flight left in July, and another is planned for August.

On Wednesday, August 9, 2023, at 1pm ET, Black Mauritanian leaders and advocates will explain how the Biden administration’s deportations are putting people in danger; the numerous reasons Mauritania qualifies for TPS; and the disconnect between deporting Black Mauritanians and the administration’s stated commitment to anti-racism.

WHAT: Press webinar on Mauritania eligibility for TPS

WHEN: August 9, 1pm ET

WHERE: Zoom link - no registration required

WHO: Zeinabou Sall, Mauritanian Network for Human Rights; Dr. Seydi Sarr, ABISA and Black Immigrants Bail Fund; Daniel Tse, Haitian Bridge Alliance and Black Immigrants Bail Fund; Haddy Gassama, UndocuBlack Network; and My Khanh Ngo, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; moderated by Carolyn Tran, Communities United for Status and Protection  

The Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in the U.S. and allied organizations are demanding an immediate cessation of all deportations to Mauritania. Instead, Mauritanians need  access to proficient language interpreters; parole in order to secure legal representation and present their cases; and the designation of Temporary Protected Status to safeguard lives.

In Mauritania, it is nearly impossible to be Black and survive. From the tacit acceptance of slavery to denying Black people identity documents; usurping their land; erasing their languages from official business, so that they can't get government jobs; unchecked police violence, extortion, and arbitrary arrests and detention; death sentences to repress free speech; Internet blackouts; and retaliation for civil rights activism, the Ghazouani regime has perfected the "art" of apartheid. 

The government's skillful manipulation of reality compounds the problem. All these oppressions are happening in plain sight, yet international governments have looked the other way. And anti-Black violence and oppression have escalated in recent months. 

Under the Bush and Obama administrations, deportations to Mauritania were rare. Flaws in the immigration courts led to unfair denials of asylum claims, yet sending Black people back was far too dangerous. The Trump administration changed this, increasing deportations to Mauritania by 462%.

Deportations slowed to prior levels during the first two years of Biden's presidency—although a brave leader in the successful campaign to close two ICE contracts, Saidu Sow, was sadly deported.In 2021, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expressed interest in considering a Temporary Protected Status designation for Mauritania, a step enjoying bipartisan endorsement.

However, circumstances have evolved in 2023. Though Secretary Mayorkas indicated possible consideration of TPS for Mauritania in 2021, the present reality diverges from the commitment. Instead of ensuring a just asylum process, Black Mauritanians encounter denials; expedited Credible Fear Interviews; truncated appeals; interpreters unversed in their specific dialects; arbitrary detention impeding legal representation and asylum preparation; and eventual deportation to the very nation they fled.

Deporting people to Mauritania is dangerous because of the country’s system of apartheid and slavery. Mauritania has the highest rate of slavery in the world. The government views people seeking asylum as traitors, and frequently arrests and puts people who were deported in jail. There, they are abused and extorted until they pay the jailers, and threatened with deportation across the Senegal River. Once released, they are often on the run again because life is unlivable at "home."

TPS for Mauritania stands as a critical and overdue action that the Biden administration had previously indicated it would consider. The time has come for the administration to take concrete steps.