Sydelle O'Brien

Philadelphia, PA

I have lived in America as an undocumented immigrant for the past 19 years. There isn’t a day I don’t wake up feeling unclear of what my future holds, unclear of just where I will end up or how my journey may end.

Despite Black immigrants comprising 7 percent of immigrants in the U.S., we are disproportionately targeted for arrest, comprising 11 percent of those immigrants facing deportation. 76 percent of Black immigrants are deported because of over-policing and racial profiling in our communities. This is a direct result of the racial profiling that all Black Americans experience, regardless of country of origin. Unfortunately, for some of us, this results in deportation to a country we know little about. We are ripped apart from our loved ones and treated like criminals, and thrown into a life we do not know.