Many deportees from the United States, with no money and no family in Jamaica, end up homeless. - File WASHINGTON (CMC):
For many years, deportation has been a major issue dividing Washington and the Caribbean.
America has sought to purge itself of Caribbean nationals who have done time for criminal acts, but regional leaders have consistently argued that the practice is unjust because some of those deported have learnt their criminal ways in the United States.
One Washington-based human rights group has seen the challenge of the region in dealing with deportees and has called on lawmakers here to "have a heart" in repealing or amending laws that have proven to be very burdensome on Caribbean states.
Us 'far out of step'
Testifying Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs, Alison Parker, an attorney and senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the United States is "far out of step" with international human rights standards with respect to deportations.
"Human rights law recognises that the privilege of living in any country as a non-citizen may be conditional upon obeying that country's laws," she said.
"However, a country like the United States cannot withdraw that privilege without protecting the human rights of the immigrants it previously allowed to enter," she added.
Parker, therefore, called on Congress to reinstate hearings that would allow Caribbean immigrants facing deportation the chance to ask a judge to allow them to remain in the United States when their crimes are relatively minor and their connections, especially family ties, to the U.S. are strong.
"Providing for proportionality in deportation and protecting family unity are essential to a just and fair immigration policy," she told the committee, chaired by New York Democratic Congressman Eliot Engels.
"And, this cannot be accomplished without amending U.S. immigration law to allow for relatively simple balancing hearings," he added.
Parker said about 672,593 legal immigrants in the U.S. have been deported under the 1996 Immigration Law, which requires mandatory deportation of non-citizens convicted of a crime after they have served prison terms.
"It does not matter whether the non-citizen has lived here legally for decades, built a home and family, ran a business, or paid taxes," she said.
"And, these laws do not apply only to serious crimes but also to minor offences," she added.
Families broken
Human Rights Watch estimates that 1.6 million adults and children, including U.S. citizens, have been separated from their spouses and parents because of this legislation.
"Families have been torn apart because of a single,even minor, misstep, such as shoplifting or drug possession," Parker said.
Gary E. Mead, assistant director for Management Office of Detention and Removal Operations in the Department of Homeland Security, testified that fiscal year 2006 was a record year, with 196,707 deportations from the U.S.; and that fiscal year 2007 is "currently on pace to exceed fiscal year 2006 by 10 per cent."
He said Jamaica, with 1,426 deportations, was among the top 10 countries in the Western Hemisphere for criminal and non-criminal deportations in fiscal year 2006. Mexico topped the list with 114,640 deportations.
The impact of the deportations on the Caribbean has been so adverse that CARICOM leaders were forced to put it on the front burner when they met with U.S. President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and congressional leaders, including the Congressional Black Caucus, during last month's Conference on the Caribbean in Washington.
Speaking on behalf of CARICOM, Dr. Annmarie Barnes, chief technical director in Jamaica's Ministry of National Security, told U.S. legislators that the mass deportation of criminal offenders to the Caribbean constitutes one of the greatest threats to regional security.
She testified that while the vast majority of deported convicted felons might have been stripped of their material possessions, "their propensity to criminality remains intact".
"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," Barnes said.
She pointed to a recent CARICOM study that found that almost 30,000 criminal offenders have been deported to Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago between 1990 and 2005.
In analysing the data, Barnes said over 17,000 were deported for drug offences; almost 1,800 for possession of illegal firearms, and over 600 for murder, stating that the U.S. is responsible for over 75 per cent of all criminal deportations to the region.
Relocation of criminals
With a combined population of less than five million people in the countries studied, she said the impact of this relocation of criminal offenders would be roughly equivalent to the influx, into the United States, of more than one million convicted drug offenders, and close to 40,000 convicted murderers.
Barnes said the study also found that many deported persons continue to engage in crime subsequent to their deportation.
She said of 345 deported persons interviewed, the majority were parents whose children in the United States face extreme hardships, both emotionally and financially.
The Caribbean security expert, therefore, urged Washington to establish procedural guidelines that would help to "streamline the deportation process with due regard for the interests of both deporting and receiving countries."
