WASHINGTON, DC – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has recommended to the United States (US) the establishment of procedural guidelines to streamline the deportation process.
Those guidelines would take into consideration the interests of the US and the receiving countries.
The recommendation was among several tabled by Dr. Annmarie Barnes, Chief Technical Director of the Ministry of National Security of Jamaica and CARICOM Consultant on Criminal Deportation. She spoke on the Community’s behalf in Washington on July 24, 2007 at a Hearing on deportees in Latin American and the Caribbean held by the Sub-Committee on the Western Hemisphere of the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Dr Barnes referred to the empirical data from the findings of the Deportation Studies on Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, which were submitted to the Council of Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement in May 2007. Her presentation focused on the scale of deportation, security/law enforcement implications, the social effects impacting on both the Caribbean and the United States, and the inadequacy of current procedures.
Among her other recommendations were a review of the legislative framework and the allocation of technical and financial resources to support the social reintegration of deportees and law enforcement programs in receiving countries.
The Caribbean was the only sub-region represented at the two-panel Hearing which was chaired by Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY). In addition to the Chairman, statements alluding to the concerns of CARICOM Heads of Government were also made by Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, US House of Representatives, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Gregory Meeks, Donald Payne and other congressional representatives.
The testimonies of the representatives from the federal government revealed the need to improve communication with the receiving countries, extend support for the establishment of transitional facilities, provide counseling and other requisite training, as well as the need for greater consideration of the severe disruption to US families when a family member is deported.
The congressional representatives acknowledged the importance of carefully reviewing existing immigration procedures, and collaborating with receiving countries to mitigate the adverse security and socio-economic effects of criminal deportation.
Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers of CARICOM raised the deportee issue when they met the United States President, the Secretary of State and congressional representatives of the Committee on Foreign Relations during last month’s Conference on the Caribbean in Washington D.C. from June 19-21, 2007.
