Caribbean governments accept US policy to deport undocumented Caribbean immigrants
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have largely accepted the US decision to deport nationals from the region who are residing illegally in the United States. However, they are also working to formulate a collective response to the Donald Trump administration’s global reduction in foreign aid.
While acknowledging the enforcement of US immigration policies, CARICOM members are expressing concerns over the broader implications of reduced aid. The leaders are now focused on developing diplomatic strategies to address the cutbacks in US assistance, which have had significant impacts on the Caribbean and other regions.
“Saint Lucia’s position is, we have citizens in the US who are there illegally? Saint Lucia will cooperate with the US as far as that is concerned. But you need to be respected,” Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“You need to be treated as a state that obeys the laws and the regulations of every country. We will not encourage anyone to disobey the laws in the United States, nor should anyone be encouraged,” Pierre said.
His Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Gaston Browne, said deporting nationals from the United States “is nothing new.
“I’m told, actually, under the Obama administration that more Caribbean nationals had been deported than what is actually on the list that we’ve seen recently under the Trump administration.
“I think we have an obligation to accept our citizens who are deported at the end of the day. We cannot make them stateless,” Browne said, adding that “at this point, based on the quantities that I’ve seen, I don’t think it is extraordinary.
“We just have to make sure that there’s collaboration at the regional level to ensure that those involved in criminal activities do not get the opportunity to travel freely within the CARICOM space and to create problems for us”.
St Kitts-Nevis Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Denzil Douglas, said the Caribbean, like the rest of the world, is “waiting to see the unfolding of the new administration in the United States.