…as US report shows rise in deportations to Guyana
Some 137 Guyanese were last year deported from the United States of America (USA) for various offences. They have returned to their homeland – Guyana — but any procedures for reintegrating them into society without incident are limited at best.
Additionally, for those who would have committed criminal offences, there is little monitoring of them when they return to Guyana.
This publication spoke to Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan in a recent interview, and he admitted that there is no formal reintegration or monitoring procedure for these deportees.
“We don’t have any process of really reintegrating them,” he related. “We try as best (as is possible) to let them go back to their families. They check with the Police for a couple of weeks. There isn’t an institutionalised reintegration process,” the minister explained.
“As far as I know, there was kind of an experimental pilot project that was supported initially years ago, but when they’re deported, they come back to their country of birth because they are citizens of Guyana. And that’s more or less the situation.”
The minister was also asked how many persons were deported for committing violent, criminal offences. Ramjattan noted that while he believes the Enforcement and Removal Operations Report (ERO) report was accurate, he has not yet been able to do a formal analysis of its findings.
“Not having proper documentation is a criminal offence,” Ramjattan explained. “If they are convicted for murder, if they’re convicted for rape or whatever, those are all criminal offences. America deports exclusively, in my opinion, for criminal offences. All of them were criminals.
“There are Guyanese who misbehaved over there, committed offences,” he further related. “Some were jailed for some time, then sent back. Some were immediately sent back for a variety of offences.”
Over the years, a number of deportees have been fingered in a number of criminal activities ranging from assault to murder. In some instances, they were even deported after already serving time for criminal activities.
Previously, President David Granger had expressed some level of concern about Guyana’s ability and capacity to handle any possible influx of Guyanese being deported from the USA. He had explained that a better approach to the situation would be for the US to provide ample time and adequate notice before sending the undocumented criminals back to Guyana.
“We will have to put measures in place to ensure deportees do not try to perpetrate crimes when they get back here, but it is something we must prepare for,” he had stated during an edition of “The Public Interest”, a televised programme now on an extended hiatus.
ICE
The report in question is the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations Report (ERO) for the fiscal year 2017. Documented therein is that a total of 137 Guyanese were deported from the USA in 2017.
This is a hike compared to 93 persons who were removed and sent back home in 2016 for various criminal offences.
ERO identifies, arrests, and removes aliens who present a danger to national security or a threat to public safety, or who otherwise undermine border control and the integrity of the US immigration system.
When US President Donald Trump was elected to office in 2016, it did not take long for the administration to pursue a more forceful crackdown on illegal immigration.
Last year, he issued Executive Order 13,768, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States (EO), which set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) February 20, 2017 memorandum, Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest (implementation memorandum), provided direction for the implementation of the policies set forth in the EO.
An executive order was even signed by President Trump, which threatened the grant of federal aid to countries that do not take back deportees promptly.
