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By Felicia Persaud |
Washington, April 1: Latest deportation figures out of the new U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services reveal that almost ten thousand immigrants, both legal and undocumented, were deported to the Caribbean in fiscal year 2002, up from over 7,000 in 2001.
For the English-speaking Caribbean, Jamaica once again receiving the highest number of deportees, with a whopping 2,122, up from 2,017 in 2001. The island was also again among the top countries globally to receive deportees. They were followed way behind by Trinidad and Tobago, which was forced to take back 314 of their nationals in 2002 while. Guyana received the third highest number, 222.
One hundred and ninety-three deportees were sent home to the Bahamas and 55 to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Considering the land mass and population of these islands, the number is significant.
Fifty-one immigrants were sent home to Barbados and 36 to the tiny islands of Antigua and Barbuda. Thirty-four and thirty-one were deported back to St. Lucia and Dominica respectively while Grenada received 28 and St. Kitts, 23.
Other English-speaking Caribbean islands to receive deportees included the British Virgin Island with 14, Bermuda, 12, Turks & Caicos, 6, the Cayman Islands. 3, Aruba, 2 and the U.S. Virgin Islands, 1.
For the non-English speaking territories, the Dominican Republic topped the list with 3,225 followed closely by Cuba with 2,750 and Haiti with 1,058. Thirteen immigrants were sent back to the Netherland Antilles while Guadeloupe received 3 and Martinique and Puerto Rico, one each. The median age of the deported aliens was 28.
Most of the deportees were legal immigrants who had committed crimes and served their time in U.S. jails before being shipped back to their native land. Jamaica again topped the list for the English-speaking territories with 1,517, followed less closely by Guyana with 103 and Trinidad with 78. Deportation of criminal elements back into these countries has been blamed almost exclusively for the rising crime rates in those societies. Barbados and The Bahamas each received 27 and 23 criminal aliens, respectively.
For the non-English speaking territories, the Dominican Republic topped the list again with 784 criminal deportees followed by Cuba with 395 and Haiti with 219. All other Caribbean countries received less than 15, with Aruba, the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Turks & Caicos and the U.S. Virgin Islands receiving only 1 each. The most common crime was drug-related.
Other deportees included those who had overstayed visitor's visas, those who had entered the U.S. without inspection or via the 'backtrack,' those who has been in-transit in the country without a visa and crewmen, temporary workers, students, stowaways and other non-immigrants.
Four-hundred and forty five visitors were deported back to Jamaica, the largest number for the entire region, both English and non-English speaking. The Dominican Republic followed with 162 and Trinidad, 151. All other countries received less than one hundred deportees with Bahamas and Haiti receiving the highest in this category: 89 and 78, respectively. Guyana followed with 51 and Cuba 38.
Over 3,000 Cubans and nationals of the Dominican Republic were sent back because of entering the U.S. without inspection or through the 'backtrack.' Six hundred and seventy eight Haitians were also deported because of committing this crime as well as 424 Jamaicans and only 56 Bahamians. Less than fifty from Guyana were returned followed by Trinidad with 38. All other countries received only a small number of deportees in this category.
Aliens who entered the U.S. as a crewman, student, temporary worker or stowaway, and were eventually deported, only accounted for a small percentage. The highest number for all categories were sent back to the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica. All other countries received next to none.
Immigration agents detained a total of 202,000 aliens from around the globe in the past fiscal year. Of that number, a whopping 103,000 had criminal records.