Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders meeting in Barbados later this month will have the usual full plate of issues to discuss, including the continuing situation in strife-torn Haiti, but U.S. President Donald Trump has put an additional topic on the table: deportations of thousands of regional nationals in the coming weeks.
In the early stages of planning for the Feb. 19–21 summit, the issue of mass deportations to the 15-member bloc was not on the agenda, but influential leaders like Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent now say the heads of government have no choice but to deliberate on the issue.
The warning from Gonsalves comes as Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness is already sounding a warning to some of the more than 5,000 Jamaicans with final deportation orders awaiting forced repatriation. He said the island will be intolerant of deportees who dabble in crime, because the country already has enough problems in this area, while opening its arms to those with good intentions.
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As expected, Jamaica tops the list of Caricom nations, with 5,120 awaiting flights, followed by Guyana with 1,236; Trinidad with 1,197; Belize with 899; and the Bahamas with 709, according to published figures. Haiti, with thousands benefiting from temporary protective status (TPS), it is being treated differently by the Trump administration: It is not included in this particular list.
“Let me be clear to you that this is not the Jamaica that you left 10 or 20 years ago,” Holness told reporters. “It is not the Jamaica Constabulary Force that you left 10 or 20 years ago. You will either meet a judge or your maker if you come back to Jamaica and violate our laws and create havoc. Come back with a good heart and a good mind, come back willing to work, come back with your resources, [and] you will be able to make life here, but don’t come back here to undermine and destroy what we have built.”
As Holness dished out his warning, Gonsalves suggested that the issue is big enough to make the agenda in Barbados. “Of course, heads [of government] and other officials are communicating with one another on this particular subject, naturally,” he said. “You’ll be silly not to be communicating, either at the political level, or both cases at the level of officials who would have to administer any particular matter arising from any possible deportation.”
Like other government leaders, Gonsalves wants the deportation flights and the process to be dignified. It would also help if governments have biographical information about deported nationals to make it easier for authorities to deal with them.
“You may deport somebody — let’s say somebody who is in jail for burglary. They finish their sentence, or even if you commute their sentence for deportation, you send them home. All the information we have is that John Brown was serving five years for burglary, armed robbery, or whatever it is, but we do not know the history of this person — how long that person was in the United States of America, his or her skills, educational attainment, what is his or her criminal record. We have not received anything formal about that.”
Just last week, the first batch of 56 deportees to Jamaica arrived on the island, fueling speculation that these were part of the new U.S. policy on deportees, but Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith was forced to remind citizens that that batch was part of the regular, routine monthly repatriation of Jamaicans from U.S. prisons. Of the 56, four were convicted murderers. She said preparations are being made in earnest for any large group of arrivals in the coming weeks.
“While new immigration enforcement measures will result in an increased number of Jamaicans being repatriated, there are several processes involved,” Johnson Smith added. “The government of Jamaica is actively monitoring the situation and will continue our historically close engagement with U.S. authorities. We also wish to make clear that Jamaica, like most, if not all, countries, has international obligations requiring us to accept the return of our citizens who are subject to deportation. As a responsible member of the international community and a respectful bilateral partner, we have always honored these obligations, with appropriate attention to due process and human rights, as do other nations regarding the repatriation of foreign nationals who have violated our laws in Jamaica.”