A wave of criminal deportees may be coming our way soon

Feb 01, 2025 Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News-It is peculiar the way the PPP/C government often finds itself staring down the barrel of a problem it knew was coming but chose to ignore until it was too late. Such is the case with Guyana and the looming wave of deportees from the United States.

Last week, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, in response to a question from journalist Denis Chabrol, offered the politically correct response: Guyana has an obligation to accept its citizens. True enough, as far as statements go. But as with most things in life, the devil is not in the declaration but in the details. And the details, in this case, are messy, complicated, and fraught with the potential for social upheaval.

Guyana is no stranger to the issue of deportees. In 2001, under Jagdeo’s presidency, the PPP/C government waffled, hesitated, and even attempted to sidestep its responsibility by claiming that it needed time to verify the nationality of intended deportees.

The United States was unimpressed and with the clock ticking down, the U.S. Department of Justice formally requested that the State Department stop issuing visas to Guyanese nationals due to Guyana’s refusal to accept the return of its deported citizens. This action followed the Supreme Court ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis, which limits the indefinite detention of deported individuals. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) at the time had been holding over 100 Guyanese nationals deemed dangerous. The Justice Department indicated that visa sanctions could be lifted if Guyana agreed to repatriate its citizens within 30 days.  Jagdeo and his government quickly complied.

The PPP/C government, pragmatic as ever, is unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past. Its leaders, after all, have a fondness for travelling to the land of the free and the home of the brave. They would not put at risk the loss of that privilege. So, when the deportees come—and they will come—Guyana will accept them, no questions asked.

But accepting the deportees is one thing; reintegrating them into society is quite another.  Many of those who will be deported have been away from Guyana for years, even decades. They have built lives in the United States, however precarious or undocumented those lives may have been. Many of them have children who speak with American accents and have jobs that pay in US d0llars. To return to a country they no longer recognise, to a place where they may have no family, no home, and no prospects, is not just a logistical challenge—it is a human tragedy waiting to happen.

And then there is the matter of crime. The Caribbean has seen this movie before, and it does not end well. In the 1980s, a surge in gun-related, drug-related and organised crimes was linked, in part, to deportees who brought with them a sophisticated and unsettling level of criminality. The Region, unprepared and overwhelmed, struggled to cope.

Guyana, with its already fragile social fabric and weak policing cannot afford a repeat of that era. Yet, there is every reason to believe that history may rhyme, if not repeat itself.

The U.S. authorities have made it clear that their immediate focus is on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants with serious criminal records. But reports from New York, where thousands of undocumented Guyanese reside, suggest that even those without serious criminal records are being swept up in the dragnet. This means that Guyana could soon face a flood of deportees, some of whom may be innocent of any serious wrongdoing, while others may carry with them the seeds of trouble.

The greatest danger however, will be those with serious criminal records. They can pose a grave and immediate threat to our nation’s safety. Many of these individuals are hardened criminals—seasoned in violence, drug trafficking, armed robbery, and even murder—who will return to our shores without rehabilitation, without remorse, and without any means of livelihood. With no ties to society and nothing to lose, they could form ruthless gangs, terrorizing our communities, overwhelming law enforcement, and plunging our streets into chaos. We cannot afford to be complacent. Failure to prepare now could mean a future where no one is safe in their own home, where businesses are held hostage by crime, and where innocent lives are shattered by lawlessness.

In the face of such a challenge, one would expect the government to be preparing, planning, and putting in place measures to manage the inevitable. But if Vice President Jagdeo’s recent comments are any indication, the government seems content to wing it. This is not just short-sighted; it is irresponsible. The social consequences of a sudden influx of deportees could be profound, and the government’s failure to plan for this eventuality.

The wave of deportees is coming, whether Guyana is ready or not. The question is not whether the government will accept them—it must—but how it will manage the social, economic, and security implications of their return. To ignore this issue is to invite trouble.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper.)

(A wave of criminal deportees may be coming our way soon)

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, deportees, PPP/C Government, U.S. Department of Justice, United States

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