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Jamaican Official Insists Deportation Is Threat To Caribbean 
Deportees being shipped back to their native land. (ICE Image)
Hardbeatnews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. July 25, 2007: A top Jamaican official in the country’s Ministry of National Security has insisted that the thousands of criminal deportees sent back from the United States to the region annually, constitutes a “real threat” to the Caribbean.
Annmarie Barnes, chief technical director in the National Security ministry, testifying before a congressional hearing on “Deportees in Latin America and the Caribbean,” held by the Sub Committee on the Western Hemisphere yesterday, insisted, “The mass deportation of criminal offenders to the Caribbean and Latin America constitutes one of the greatest threats to security in the region.”
And she urged lawmakers in the United States to recognize this “… and to take actions that remain true to this nation’s ideal of enhancing global security, and creating a just society for all mankind.”
Barnes noted that while deportation may solve a few problems within the deporting country, the removal of criminal offenders to another geographical location does not protect the United States from further criminal actions by those persons.
“Recent experience shows that in a global world, problems of in-security cannot be constrained by borders, particularly in nation-states that are less able to keep pace with globalized threats,” said the Jamaican official. “By expanding the locale for criminal enterprise, deportation poses serious challenges not only to national security interests in receiving countries, but also to the management and control of security globally.”
She called on the Congress of the United States to establish procedural guidelines that would help to streamline the deportation process and review the legislative framework that governs the deportation of long term residents, with a view to more appropriately balancing the best interests of children.
Barnes also called for the allocation of technical and financial resources to support social reintegration and law enforcement programs in receiving countries, including, support for the re-integration of deported persons; financial support for establishment of transitional facilities and increased support for law enforcement services in the receiving countries.
“If global concerns about security are to be universally respected, then the United States, the nation at the forefront of the charge to create a safer global community, should ensure that it does not engage in action that shifts the burden of maintaining security to countries least equipped to do so,” added Barnes.
Charles S. Shapiro, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who also testified before the panel, disclosed that CARICOM has requested assistance with resettlement and reintegration of deportation.
He said that the Bureau intends to use the International Organization for Migration project in Haiti, that provides deportee reintegration services, including counseling, vocational training, skills development and micro-credit lending, as a model for reintegration in other CARICOM countries in the future.
“We are currently in discussions with CARICOM members on the next steps and what adaptations may be needed to the model program so that it is useful to other nations,” said Shapiro.
In an analysis of deportation data for Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, a recent CARICOM study found that almost 30,000 criminal offenders had been deported to those countries between 1990 and 2005. Over 17,000 had been deported for drug offences; almost 1800 for possession of illegal firearms, and more than 600 for murder. The United States is responsible for more than seventy-five percent of all criminal deportations to the region.
Yesterday, Gary Mead, assistant director for management, Office of Detention and removal Operations of the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement unit, revealed in his testimony that 45 Jamaicans at least are sent back from the US monthly while 50 and 70, respectively, are returned every two weeks to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He also disclosed that for fiscal year 2006, 1,426 criminal migrants were deported to Jamaica while 2,805 were sent back to the DR.
The two countries have received the highest number of deportees from the US annually since the immigration laws were changed in 1996 to make green card holders who commit a crime, deportable. – Hardbeatnews.com
Hardbeatnews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. July 25, 2007: A top Jamaican official in the country’s Ministry of National Security has insisted that the thousands of criminal deportees sent back from the United States to the region annually, constitutes a “real threat” to the Caribbean.
Annmarie Barnes, chief technical director in the National Security ministry, testifying before a congressional hearing on “Deportees in Latin America and the Caribbean,” held by the Sub Committee on the Western Hemisphere yesterday, insisted, “The mass deportation of criminal offenders to the Caribbean and Latin America constitutes one of the greatest threats to security in the region.”
And she urged lawmakers in the United States to recognize this “… and to take actions that remain true to this nation’s ideal of enhancing global security, and creating a just society for all mankind.”
Barnes noted that while deportation may solve a few problems within the deporting country, the removal of criminal offenders to another geographical location does not protect the United States from further criminal actions by those persons.
“Recent experience shows that in a global world, problems of in-security cannot be constrained by borders, particularly in nation-states that are less able to keep pace with globalized threats,” said the Jamaican official. “By expanding the locale for criminal enterprise, deportation poses serious challenges not only to national security interests in receiving countries, but also to the management and control of security globally.”
She called on the Congress of the United States to establish procedural guidelines that would help to streamline the deportation process and review the legislative framework that governs the deportation of long term residents, with a view to more appropriately balancing the best interests of children.
Barnes also called for the allocation of technical and financial resources to support social reintegration and law enforcement programs in receiving countries, including, support for the re-integration of deported persons; financial support for establishment of transitional facilities and increased support for law enforcement services in the receiving countries.
“If global concerns about security are to be universally respected, then the United States, the nation at the forefront of the charge to create a safer global community, should ensure that it does not engage in action that shifts the burden of maintaining security to countries least equipped to do so,” added Barnes.
Charles S. Shapiro, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who also testified before the panel, disclosed that CARICOM has requested assistance with resettlement and reintegration of deportation.
He said that the Bureau intends to use the International Organization for Migration project in Haiti, that provides deportee reintegration services, including counseling, vocational training, skills development and micro-credit lending, as a model for reintegration in other CARICOM countries in the future.
“We are currently in discussions with CARICOM members on the next steps and what adaptations may be needed to the model program so that it is useful to other nations,” said Shapiro.
In an analysis of deportation data for Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, a recent CARICOM study found that almost 30,000 criminal offenders had been deported to those countries between 1990 and 2005. Over 17,000 had been deported for drug offences; almost 1800 for possession of illegal firearms, and more than 600 for murder. The United States is responsible for more than seventy-five percent of all criminal deportations to the region.
Yesterday, Gary Mead, assistant director for management, Office of Detention and removal Operations of the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement unit, revealed in his testimony that 45 Jamaicans at least are sent back from the US monthly while 50 and 70, respectively, are returned every two weeks to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He also disclosed that for fiscal year 2006, 1,426 criminal migrants were deported to Jamaica while 2,805 were sent back to the DR.
The two countries have received the highest number of deportees from the US annually since the immigration laws were changed in 1996 to make green card holders who commit a crime, deportable. – Hardbeatnews.com