Barbados has not yet received any official correspondence about whether any Bajans are to be deported from the United States as part of the President Donald Trump-sanctioned immigration clean-up.
However, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is hopeful that if they have to be sent packing, the process will be done in a dignified way.
“I have not seen anything officially yet but I, like the rest of the world, have seen some numbers and I will wait to see anything that is official.
“I certainly have asked my Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate to see what they can do to ensure that any sending back of persons will be done in a dignified way. I do hope there will be conversations that will allow countries that are receiving the time,” Mottley said yesterday at State House.
Since Trump returned to office, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents began targeted operations in several states following his campaign pledge to crack down swiftly on people who may be in the country without legal status.
Lists have been circulating online naming thousands of people from various countries, Barbados included.
Mottley said individual countries had the right to uphold their policies.
“We have to recognise each country has a right to pursue its own policies and to protect its own laws. Whether we like the way in which it is being done or not, is a different story,” she added. (TG)
