Fewer Guyanese are being deported from U.S. – Ambassador

Despite public views that a large number of Guyanese in the United States are still being deported, U.S. Ambassador Perry Holloway has stated that this is not the case. In fact, he noted that the number has been reducing over recent years.

In an exclusive interview with Guyana Times International, the Ambassador said Guyanese deportation figures had never been as high as persons perceived. He noted that in any given year, it has been an average of 100 to 200 persons; however of recent the number has been leaning more on the lesser side.

“Over the last four years it has been going down. I have no explanations why it’s going down but it has been going down… I think people get the impression that thousands of Guyanese are being deported (but) I have gone back to about 10 years and I don’t think it was ever higher than 200,” he explained.

Ambassador Holloway added that currently the number of Guyanese being deported from the North American country is much closer to 100 on average per year.

According to records from the United States Department of Homeland Security, there has been a decreasing trend from 2008 to 2013 in the number of persons deported back to Guyana. Between that period a total of 1035 persons were deported, 803 of whom were non-criminals.

Statistics on the US agency’s website shows that in 2008 some 508 persons were sent back, while 492 were deported in 2009. The following year saw 428 Guyanese deported back to Guyana and 411 in 2011. Approximately 360 persons were sent home in 2012 and another 292 the following year. These persons were deported on a criminal/non-criminal basis.

The figures for the succeeding years are not available on the website.

Moreover, the Ambassador went on to highlight that while some of the deportees are criminals not all of them are, contrary to popular belief. “Some people are just people who overstayed their visas or whatever the case maybe,” he stated.

Back in February last year, around 26 deportees from the United States arrived in Guyana after serving time for various crimes. The convicted criminals came aboard a DC 9 World Atlantic flight.

According to procedures, after clearing immigration they were shuttled to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Eve Leary, where they were processed for release.

The United States has deported thousands of convicted criminals to the Caribbean annually since 1996, when Congress mandated that every non-citizen sentenced to a year or more in prison must be kicked out of the country upon release.

In all, the US is responsible for about three-quarters of the region’s returning criminal deportees, with the United Kingdom and Canada accounting for most of the other ex-cons arriving in the Caribbean.

It is a phenomenon that also afflicts many parts of Central America, where street gangs that grew out of Los Angeles spread to the region through massive deportations. Brutal and powerful, one such gang, the “Maras” are blamed for rampant violent crime, extortion and, more recently, acting as enforcers for drug cartels.

Some years ago, Caribbean governments had said that deportees were exacerbating crime in nations with high levels of violence. The US in attempting to defuse tensions had introduced a programme to help reintegrate deportees, but the programme coordinated by the International Organisation for Migration recorded moderate success and was scrapped.

Some Caribbean countries such as Guyana had also enacted laws, which gave lawmen the power to monitor criminal deportees.