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Op-Ed

OPINION: Black Civil Rights Groups Need to Spend More Time Focused on Black People in America

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By Raynard Jackson (NNPA Newswire Columnist)

In another episode of “What the hell are they thinking?” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over how the agency is treating people from another country.

Enough is enough. We live in the United States of America, not the United States of Everyone Else.

Last week, my column was about how Black leaders, who have been appointed by the mainstream media, continue to make every other group’s issues our community’s issues.

Now the NAACP has filed a lawsuit against DHS, because they revoked Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitians living in the U.S.

According to the lawsuit, the NAACP claims, “[Trump] wishes to reduce the number of immigrants of color in the United States.” They basically are asserting that DHS is terminating TPS for Haitians, because of their race and are being denied equal protection and due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.

And their radical sister organization, the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) in a press release goes even further: “As evidence of the intent to discriminate, the lawsuit cites public reporting that DHS sought crime data on Haitians with TPS, as well as information on how many Haitian nationals were receiving public benefits. The lawsuit alleges that the Department’s efforts to gather this specific data on Haitian TPS designees “trades on false anti-Black stereotypes about criminality and exploitation of public benefits and suggests the effort to manufacture a public safety rationale for the planned rescission.”

You have got to be kidding me. So, let me make sure I understand this correctly. Merely, because DHS is seeking information to determine if a specific group who is living under TPS is in compliance with the requirements of the program, that is somehow racist?

This is totally idiotic.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), “The Secretary of Homeland Security may designate a foreign country for TPS due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately. USCIS may grant TPS to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of countries), who are already in the United States. Eligible individuals without nationality who last resided in the designated country may also be granted TPS.”

The Secretary may designate a country for TPS due to the following temporary conditions in the country: “ongoing armed conflict (such as civil war), an environmental disaster (such as earthquake or hurricane), or an epidemic, other extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

Based on the above, it is clearly established that President Trump, through his DHS, has total and unilateral authority to decide who can be protected under TPS and when they can have that designation removed.

Whether Trump is a “racist,” as the NAACP alleges, or not has absolutely no bearing on the president’s authority to determine who gets TPS and for how long.

To further debunk the myth that Trump is a racist, one should take note of others who have TPS status. There currently ten countries with citizens in the U.S. listed under TPS: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

Do you notice anything that stands out to you?

The NAACP alleges in no uncertain terms that Trump “wishes to reduce the number of immigrants of color in the United States.” If that is the case, can they please explain to me why there is not one country whose citizens are granted TPS from a European country? They are all from countries with people of color.

The NAACP’s lawsuit is frivolous at best and a waste of the court’s time at worst. This lawsuit will ultimately be thrown out with the quickness, once it gets before a judge.

But the bigger question is this: Why is the NAACP and the LDF, yet again, expending so much precious capital on people who are not even U.S. citizens?

Should they not be more concerned about getting protection for all the Black Americans in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, and Ferguson, to name a few, whose daily lives are filled with one catastrophic disaster after another?

What about the flood of drugs permeating the Black community, what about the tsunami of out of wedlock births affecting the Black community; what about the earthquake of crime destroying the Black community, what about the civil war going on within the body politic in the Black community?

I thought the NAACP’s core mission was to fight for equality for Blacks in America and fight against injustice.

Just as former President Barack Obama damaged America’s standing by his misguided intervention across the globe, the NAACP is doing the same thing by attempting to intervene on the behalf of non-residents. No, their mission should always be America first, America last, and America always!

Does that mean we should not attempt to help others in need? Of course not. But there must be some type of priority placed on our activities.

When your own community is in need and hurting, your first and only obligation is to help your own, even if that means your “neighbor” will suffer, temporarily.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit http://www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @Raynard1223.

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