By: Staff Writer
December 6, 2024
The incoming Trump administration is preparing a list of countries to which it may deport migrants when their home countries refuse to accept them, according to what three sources familiar with the plans told NBC News.
The countries on the list have included but may not be limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada, the sources said.
So far, the Bahamas government has “rejected,” Trump’s plan in a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, Philip Davis, it said: “The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to address recent reports regarding a proposal from the Trump transition team in the United States for The Bahamas to accept deportation flights of migrants from other countries. This matter was presented to the Government of The Bahamas but was reviewed and firmly rejected by the Prime Minister.
“The Bahamas simply does not have the resources to accommodate such a request. The Prime Minister priorities remain focused on addressing the concerns of The Bahamian people.
“Since the Prime Minister’s rejection of this proposal, there has been no further engagement or discussions with the Trump transition team or any other entity regarding this matter. The Government of The Bahamas remains committed in its position.”
Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, who also sits as the chairman of CARICOM, said that the Caribbean bloc is “not worried,” about Trump’s deportation plan.
Mitchell also said: “For Caricom nationals, whatever policy the US implements under President Trump, it will have a minimal disruptive effect, but we will continue to monitor the situation and see how it plays out,”
There are also legal challenges to Trump’s deportation plans. People brought to the US as children and covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, often referred to as Dreamers, could be at risk – but probably not immediately. They are a politically more popular group of immigrants, said Michelle Lapointe, the legal director for the American Immigration Council. But ongoing legal challenges could end Daca, giving the Trump administration “the outcome they want without having to do anything new”.
Immigration advocates expect Trump to go after “low-hanging fruit”. This would include people who have final orders of removal who have exhausted their legal rights in the courts. Trump did this during his first term. “There’s nothing stopping the new administration from looking to target those people right away,” Lapointe said.
The incoming administration has also signaled it will again try to expand “expedited removals”, a way to remove undocumented immigrants without the typical legal processes if they meet certain parameters, such as being in the country less than two years.
This move could end up with hundreds of legal suits and end up in endless loops of appeals and lawsuits, which could drag the Trump administration down into an endless mire of uselessness that it would not be beneficial for it to carry on with their deportation proposal.
Additionally, Caribbean countries do not have the means and resources to absorb regular immigration, much less imposed immigration by the millions.
During Trump’s first time, he deported just over 1.5 million people back to their homeland. This current plan seeks to send illegals in the US to countries other than their own, which for the Caribbean, would be a disaster.