Black Immigrants in California

Black immigrants are not only an integral part of our communities, but also to the overall immigrants’ rights movement. As federal immigration policies shift, and threats to immigrant communities intensify, we  cannot overlook the implications of these shifts on Black immigrants in order to advance equity, safety, and justice. Dignity for immigrant communities today is dependent on the inclusion of all immigrants, specifically Black immigrants.

As immigrants continue to make up an increasing percentage of the nation’s population, Black immigrants are experiencing many hardships as anti-Blackness and structural inequalities persist. California is home to a very large and diverse immigrant population (over 10 million), including Black immigrants. California remains one of the leading states in prioritizing the needs and voices of immigrant communities, with community organizations and advocates continuing efforts to preserve funding amidst budget constraints. Understanding the demographic, social, and economic realities of Black immigrant communities in California is essential to advancing racial and immigrant justice.

At a time when Black history in the United States is constantly challenged, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and ERI partnered to release an updated profile on Black Immigrants in California featuring an interactive webpage, a regional slide deck, and a short educational brief. We focused our project around the nearly 218,000 Black residents in with immigrant backgrounds who make up about eight percent of the California’s total Black population (2.8 million). This project offers insights into the varied demographic, social, and economic characteristics of Black immigrants living statewide, as well as in four major regions throughout the state with large Black Immigrant populations: Los Angeles County, San Diego County, the Inland Empire, and the Bay Area.

This project provides disaggregated data for Black immigrants by status to better understand the Black immigrant experience. Depending on their status, Black immigrants navigate the complexities of the federal and state immigration systems differently. About 104,000 Black immigrants living in California are naturalized citizens, and about 22,200 are undocumented. For the approximately 200 Black Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and 700 Temporary Protective Status holders, the risk of losing their status and falling victim to the arrest and deportation pipeline is more imminent under this current administration. The protections afforded to many immigrants with lawful status have weakened with the reversal of many federal immigration policies and increased enforcement of deportations.

Of the nearly 218,000 Black immigrants living in the state, over 50 percent of Black immigrants have originated from countries in West Africa, East Africa, and the Caribbean. The top five countries of origin for California’s Black immigrant population are Nigeria, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kenya, and Belize. For Black immigrants and many others living in California, the rise of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids statewide has sown fear throughout the community. At the start of the summer, ICE began to target various cities and counties across the state with a large immigrant population, like Los Angeles. In an aggressive show of force, the Department of Homeland Security targeted immigrants of all backgrounds, including street vendors, day laborers, garment workers, and many others across the state, detaining thousands, including nearly 3,000 from the LA area.

Black immigrants have been facing an onslaught of new policies aimed at restricting immigration.  For example, many Black immigrants hold Temporary Protective Status (TPS), which allows immigrants the ability to live and work in the United States. TPS was granted to foreign nationals who previously resided in a country deemed unsafe to return to because of ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, an epidemic, or other extremely dangerous circumstances. As the ICE raids began in June 2025, the current administration announced the removal of TPS for nationals from Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and other countries—along with the declaration of a travel ban for citizens of nineteen different countries. The travel ban list was mostly comprised of African and Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Haiti. Organizations such as African Communities Together have called out these policy decisions as  anti-Black, promoting racism, and increasing xenophobia throughout the United States, as they target predominantly Black and Brown communities.

Black communities in California and across the United States continue to resist and challenge structural barriers to their well-being—including criminalization, state-sanctioned violence, deportation, and isolation —all exacerbated by punitive federal policies and enforcement systems. By making this data accessible, we hope to uplift the need for continuous research on the diverse experiences of Black communities throughout the United States. We hope the data provided will promote the work of advocates and community leaders to challenge inequities, push for transformative policies, and elevate the voices of Black immigrants. Explore the dedicated web page on the California Immigrant Data Portal, which includes the full slide deck with regional data, an interactive data tool, and a downloadable brief.

About the author:

Khia Duncan (she/her) is a Data Analyst II with USC’s Equity Research Institute working on projects spanning governing power and immigrant inclusion. Khia has a Master’s of Science degree in Urban Policy and Leadership from Hunter College in New York City (NYC). She is committed to social justice initiatives and data transparency and has led many youth and adult organizing efforts in NYC to organize for educational justice reform/Police Free Schools campaigns throughout the state. Outside of the ERI community; Khia is a community organizer, community gardener, political educator, musician, and advocate based in New York City.