In September 2021, news media showed images of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing Black Haitian migrants at the United States-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas. The agents appeared to use their horse reins to whip the Haitians, who ran away in fear. 1 In one photo, Mirard Joseph, a Haitian migrant, “ran, clinging to plastic bags filled with food” as an agent “wrenched his shirt” while the horse’s rein “seemed to coil like a whip.” Joseph, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter had been living with approximately 15,000 other mostly Haitian migrants in makeshift tents in Del Rio.2 The images from the border echoed the United States’ history of slavery,3 demonstrating the systemic racism of U.S. citizenship, immigration, and naturalization laws and their enforcement.4 In the United States, being a citizen determines what rights a person has—like voting5 or running for office. This paper focuses on the role of the law in defining citizenship and immigration for Black people and how that has contributed to Black people being treated unequally. It shows the ways that the law has imposed second-class citizenship on Black people—both Black migrants and Black U.S. citizens.6 While people categorized as migrants do not have the same rights as U.S. citizens, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all people equal rights under the law.7 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. U.S. Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment 8 The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that, despite this guarantee, the United States has maintained second-class status for Black people9 that has locked them out of full membership in American society. This means that throughout history, even when Black people obtain citizenship on paper, they are still excluded from the full benefits of membership. The first part of this paper explains how anti-Black racism has shaped the rules about who gets to be a citizen. This section discusses how, both during and after the era of slavery, Black people in this country continued to be denied equal rights. The second part explores how Black migrants are deported more often because of anti-Black racism. The paper ends with ideas for changing laws and policies so that everyone—no matter their race or immigration status—is treated fairly and is fully included in American life. RACE AND CITIZENSHIP Understanding how racism impacts immigration enforcement helps to develop the tools to eradicate systemic racism. From the beginning, U.S. citizenship and immigration laws were designed to make sure that white people always had more power and rights than people of other races.10 Within this system, white men who owned land were freely given citizenship, 11 while