The jubilation of a surprisingly ardent group of Donald Trump supporters in Barbados may be subsiding after his win in the United States presidential election earlier this month.
The reverberation from the second Trump victory is still being felt with many G20 countries assessing how they are likely to handle relations with the American leader who defies all the traditional expectations of “leader of the free world”.
His isolationist approach is expected to be even more intense than the first time he held office with his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. His administration is filled, so far, with hardline nationalists, whose maxim of “America for Americans” appears to equate to “America for White Americans”.
His Cabinet picks so far are many Project 2025 believers and architects who have dedicated themselves to obedient service of Trump and his demands, key among them, the removal of millions of people the US president-elect derogatorily labelled as “poisoning the blood” of America.
America’s border with Mexico has been the epicentre of the immigration controversy as Mexicans and others from Central and South America, and even Asia have used the border to enter the US in search of a better life.
Mexico, which Trump falsely promised his supporters would pay for his border wall, is positioning itself to respond to the expected deluge of immigrants returning either through self-deportation or forced removal.
Claudia Sheinbaum, who was recently elected Mexico’s first female president, announced that her administration was working on a plan to handle the deportation of Mexicans.
Interestingly, President Sheinbaum’s plan includes seeking to convince Trump there was no need to execute his plan to deport, at least the Mexicans.
“We will receive Mexicans, and we have a plan for it, but before that, we will work to demonstrate that they do not have to deport our compatriots who are on the other side of the border. On the contrary, they even benefit the economy of the United States,” Reuters news agency reported.
This sounds vaguely familiar to our own Prime Minister’s pronouncements which included seeking a face-to-face meeting with the eccentric leader to convince him that he should reconsider his position on climate change because taking some specific actions will be economically beneficial for the United States and its industrial dominance.
We are not convinced that Trump, though an extremely transactional leader, would be moved to abandon such a plan that he believes was so critical to his electoral win as well as his own personal and financial benefit.
Trump has vowed to undertake the biggest immigration crackdown in United States history from the day he begins office on January 20, and he is prepared to use the military to execute the operation. His vice president JD Vance estimates that his administration will be removing one million people each year.
In that context, it is reasonable to expect that many Caribbean people, including Barbadians, will be caught up in the sweeps. In fact, the Trump team said they will be pursuing a policy of “denaturalisation” where those who hold green cards and possibly those citizens not born in the US could also be targets.
This is a dangerous policy at all levels due to its socially and economically destructive and disruptive nature, not only in the US but for receiving nations.
It also comes at a time when the Barbados Government is taking a second stab at its We Gatherin programme, rebranded as the Come ‘Long Home, a cultural initiative meant to also spur tourism to the island and direct investment that would pump foreign dollars into the economy by Barbadians in diasporas around the world.
Like the COVID pandemic that scuttled We Gatherin of 2020, it appears the Trump election win could have a similar effect on Bajan Americans desiring to ‘Come ‘Long Home’ in 2025, many of whom are wary of travelling out of the country after January 20.
It should be expected that people who migrated to the US, some as children, know America as their only home despite their familial, cultural and ethnic ties to Barbados.
It would be naïve for the government of Barbados to believe there will be any special dispensation for Bajan Americans under an aggressive Trump immigration plan. It is, therefore, prudent that the government establish its response policy for what is going to be an unprecedented situation over the next four years.
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