Fiscally Sponsored Organization
Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP)
BLMP envisions a world where no one is forced to give up their homeland, where all Black LGBTQIA+ people are free and liberated. We build and center the power of Black LGBTQIA+ migrants to ensure the liberation of all Black people through community-building, political education, creating access to direct services, and organizing across borders. BLMP is an independent organization that is fiscally sponsored by Transgender Law Center.
Led by a directly impacted steering committee and staff and housed at the Transgender Law Center and, we build power, community, and knowledge in the U.S., while challenging the role the U.S. plays globally in creating the conditions that force us to leave our homes.
BLMP is providing cash assistance to Black LGBTQ+ migrants and first generation people dealing with the impact of COVID-19. Donate via the form to the right. For questions about donating to BLMP, please email tribe@BLMP.org.
BLMP Programs
National Organizing: BLMP shapes and informs national efforts to resist enforcement, detention and deportations through work within criminal justice/immigrant rights movements.
Local Networks: BLMP engages hundreds of community members across the U.S., and has developed active local/regional networks—centered in Oakland, CA; New York City; the Upper Midwest (Twin Cities, Chicago, Detroit); Washington DC/DMV, and the South.
Deportation Defense: We directly engage with and support detained community members, organizing campaigns for their release and helping to connect them with local support when they are released.
Research: BLMP is transforming narratives through the inaugural Queer Black Migrant Survey, which is collecting qualitative and quantitative data on our community’s experiences.
Staff and Consultants
Aneiry Simonnaeh
Garifuna Committee Organizer
Deborah A
National Organizer
Jade Daniels
Communications Manager
Natt Offiah
Southern Regional Organizer Consultant
Ola Osaze
Director
Oluchi Omeoga
Senior National Organizer
Rose Berry
Research Project Lead
Tiara Gendi
Fierce Freedom School Co-Coordinator
Steering Committee
#FreeSzaSza Campaign: Jennifer Codner aka Sza Sza, a Jamaican trans woman who was detained at Aurora Contract Detention Facility, is now FREE as of October 26, 2020!
Sza Sza endured violence and persecution in her country of origin, which drove her to seek asylum and refuge here. Being both Black and migrant, she was criminalized and shuttled into the Prison-To-Deportation Pipeline, which has been strengthened over the years. As a result, she suffered imprisonment in a cage for 3,599 days (almost 10 years). The fact that she is a Black trans woman meant that her time in detention was longer and her experiences while detained harsher. Sza Sza was ferried from one immigrant prison to the other, subjected to solitary confinement, targeting and harassment from guards, placed in men’s facilities, and experienced a host of other atrocities. For Black migrants, especially people like Sza Sza, this experience is far too common and rarely a focal point of the migrant or racial justice movement in the US.
The fight to liberate Sza Sza from immigrant prison was long and arduous. We extend our deep gratitude to the village of community members, journalists, organizers and lawyers who made this win possible, including Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Colorado American Friends Service Committee, National Immigrant Justice Coalition, Transgender Law Center, the member organizations of the Black Migrant Working Group, Casa de Paz,Transcend Arizona, Tina Vasquez, Congressmen Neguse and Crow, as well as BLMP’s membership. This victory was made possible by a tremendous show of support via thousands of individuals signing petitions, contacting ICE and elected officials coupled with a brilliant legal strategy. Though the work to ensure that Sza Sza is truly free from deportation is not yet over, we are thankful for her release and the strong community that will continue to fight alongside her.
Get involved with BLMP
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