Regional Leaders Accepting US Decision to Deport Illegal Caribbean Nationals
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders were accepting in the main, the decision to deport their nationals residing illegally in the United States, while at the same time seeking to develop a response by the Donald Trump administration to cut back on aid, globally.
Illegal migrants waiting to be deported to their homeland (File Photo)“St. Lucia’s position is, we have citizens in the US who are there illegally? St. 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 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 that 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 that they do not get the opportunity to travel freely within this 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.
“Of course, there are some immediate areas that we have …to look at,” he said, making reference to the immigration issues and the “mass movement of people out of the United States back to the Caribbean region.
“We’re asking for the public protocols to be established and pursued, as we would have done in the past, where names of perspective immigrants would be sent to us or the police,” he said, noting that the names could also be submitted to ” our missions in Washington and processed to capital and then the appropriate action taken.
“And we believe we can achieve this, because this is something that we’ve worked on in the past, and I believe that once we can dialog on issues like this, then of course, it would be better for all of us,” he said, acknowledging that while the Caribbean has not really dialogued with somebody like Trump “we’ve dialog with persons who have held the office before and persons who have been Secretary of State”.
Douglas said that one of the immediate things that he believes is needed to be done “is for us as Caribbean leaders, Caribbean governments, to seek an early opportunity to speak with the administration at the highest level”.
On the issue of the Trump administration implementing policies, including a significant reduction in foreign assistance, Prime Minister Browne said that in the case of his country “we do not get any significant support in terms of grant aid or even concession funding from the US”.
But he said that the situation maybe different for other Caribbean countries “and we’re hoping that ultimately, you know, when the dust settles, that these institutions will be re established, or if they reorganize in some other way, but that will continue deliver benefits to the Caribbean people.
“So we’re watching this space to see how it develops,” he added.
Meade said that the Caribbean continues to “worry too much about the US, when, in fact, there are other players in the world.
“So if the US is giving us problems, let’s look elsewhere. Granted, they are the focal point for our tourism industry, but they are tourists that are available from other parts of the world, and therefore we have to now spread our wings, so to speak, and look to other markets,” he said.
Asked to specify what he meant by saying the region should look elsewhere, Meade replied “you have Europe, you have China, you have India, you have Africa, you have South America. “These are all emerging economies. You also have Canada. So we can…in effect, look to other areas of the world for resources. “
Meade said he does not put too much concern about accepting aid and assistance from China, noting that “if the Chinese are the ones that are providing the resources, why are we going to say to the Chinese, no, especially when the United States have pulled back their resources.
“Look at what has happened with USAID. Overnight, one stroke of the pen, USAID is gone. The Chinese is saying we can help. The Saudis are saying we can help. What do we say to them? Because America is going to get angry. We cannot accept your help. No, we have to do what we have to do,” Meade told CMC.
Meade, a former premier, who returned to active politics last year by winning the general election, had earlier told his regional colleagues that the 51 year-old regional integration movement as “we know it is no longer affordable to most of us and it does not provide value for money.
”How functional or relevant are some of the institutions of CARICOM? Do we need to do a full review, reduce operational costs and make CARICOM an agent of change for the peoples of our region?,” he told the opening ceremony of the summit on Wednesday night.
Asked whether he believes that his comments were a bit too harsh, Meade said “it’s something that I think many of them had on their minds, but were reluctant to speak about it.
“It’s important for us at these meetings, for us to be, to be very frank in terms of our views and our opinions on what’s happening within CARICOM. We all recognize that many of the countries, many of the member states, are not up to date with their contributions.”
Pierre said in most unions there’s always a need for reform and change.
“The issue, I think, of CARICOM is that when decisions are made at the CARICOM level, when we have, when we go back to our countries, there are different legislative barriers that you have to jump.
“I think that’s where the issue is, to get to the country, to get the laws changed, and then there’s opposition. So you know, it’s a very difficult process, for several islands with different laws, different political structures.”
Pierre said that he believes that the government and the opposition must reach common ground “because we come to the meeting of all the good intentions when you get home, the reality of the political situation makes it difficult to implement”.
Prime Minister Browne said that “he does not to be preemptive and to suggest that they may not be some replacement institution, or they may not be more efficient institutions that will be able deliver more in the future”.
