https://share.icloud.com/photos/08bvdmyeXKPClLh8_xgZU4kJQ                          " All persons born in Liberia...are entitled to all privileges enjoyed by citizens of the United States." 1824 Constitution of Liberia Approved on May 23, 1825 Washington, DC, USA

" All persons born in Liberia...are entitled to all privileges enjoyed by citizens of the United States." 1824 Constitution of Liberia Approved on May 23, 1825 Washington, DC, USA

Even so, over 70% of Liberian visa applicants are denied visas after the US Embassy takes their money ($160).    

Moreover, as deadly winter weather approaches, about 6,000 refugees who fled the violence in West Africa are stranded across the United States. Without work permits, they’re unable to provide for their families’ basic needs.

This petition seeks immediate humanitarian assistance for the Liberians, many of whom are ancestrally American. This would be achieved through amendments, outlined below, to the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (LRIFA) signed into law by President Trump in 2020. 

For background, Liberia was created by the US government to colonize all free people of color when, on March 26, 1790, the US Congress passed the first naturalization act excluding anyone but “white persons” from citizenship. A group of high-ranking US officials, who were also slaveholders, formed the American Colonization Society (ACS) to remove and colonize all African Americans and mixed race Americans in order to “render the slave who remains in America more obedient, more faithful, more honest, and, consequently, more useful to his master.” Now, when Liberia—the country the US created—deals with unthinkable hardship, Liberians have sought refuge in the States only to be faced with more difficulties.

Our efforts have already gained traction in Congress. Honorable Benjamin Swan of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, called for a congressional inquiry into 200 years of ongoing harm and racism officially sanctioned in Liberia throughout American Colonization. Executed under the flag of the United States, this subjection was achieved using brute force of the US Military and American tax funding.

Specifically, Hon. Swan called on President Biden to immediately issue a humanitarian Executive Order granting work permits to all Liberians in the United States. He also called on Congress to institute a humane amendment to the LRIFA to include all Liberian refugees excluded from the “Fairness Act” who have been struggling across America without work permits since the Obama administration. “It’s unconscionable to treat human beings the way the United States treats Liberians in Africa and right here in the United States,”  Honorable Swan Said.

Even today, the racism of the first naturalization act pervades treatment of refugees. “Only white persons…,” the act read. We see now that European refugees have had an easier time than Liberians in gaining Temporary Protected Status, which provides work authorization and relief from deportation. 

Today, we call on Congress to:

• Support the immediate inclusion of all Liberian refugees “physically present in America'' as beneficiaries of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (LRIFA).
• Include a retroactive waiver of green card filing fees for all Liberian beneficiaries of the LRIFA who were unable to apply in 2021. This request is consistent with Section 245(i) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act which exempts refugees from paying filing fees for green cards.

We ask that you consider our request as part of a lawful rectification of the racism that threatens and pervades America. While officially sanctioned racism was envisioned, designed, weaponized, and codified into law by the slaveholders in the U.S Congress, their hatred continues to harm generations of black Americans who now, rightfully, are seeking refuge from a war-torn country.    

Universal Human Rights International (UHRI).
Atten: Rev. Torli H. Krua 
30 Gordon Street
Allston, MA 02134