An article in today’s Sunday Guardian reporting that T&T nationals in the United States are feeling extreme anxiety as a result of the crackdown by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on undocumented immigrants is both understandable and regrettable.
Importantly, the article quotes New York Immigration Coalition spokesman Thanu Yakupitiyage as saying: “Recent ICE enforcement activities have a very serious impact on Caribbean communities because they are targeting people who may be undocumented or have some form of criminal conviction.”
Today’s article comes shortly after reports on Friday that local football legend, Dwight Yorke was denied entry on to a flight from Qatar to Miami, en route to T&T, because he had participated in a charity game in Iran in 2015 and therefore needed a visa in his British passport, under rules introduced by former President Barack Obama.
The article also comes some three weeks after a correspondent on the US cable channel MSNBC, Malcolm Nance, told hundreds of thousands of viewers that T&T and The Bahamas “have more terrorist members” than any of the seven mostly Muslim countries whose nationals were temporarily banned from entering the US.
That 90-day travel suspension was central to an extremely controversial executive order issued by the new US President Donald Trump last month, whose apparent aim was to make America safe again from Islamic terrorists who he believes are bent on unleashing destruction on the country he leads.
It is quite noteworthy, as well, that the Breitbart News website, which is reported to have had a great deal of influence on Mr Trump’s ideological positions reproduced an Associated Press on Friday headlined Trinidad & Tobago largest per-capita Islamic State hotbed in Western Hemisphere.
Given the strong family, trading and investment links between T&T and the US, the administration in Port-of-Spain has to be very cautious that nothing is done by the Trump administration that could cause future restrictions on the ability of T&T nationals, both here and overseas, to travel to the US.
The possibility that T&T may have been in the crosshairs of US action could have been linked to the announcement by Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi on February 2 at a post-Cabinet news conference that the current administration proposes to table amendments to existing anti-terrorism legislation criminalising travel to terror hotspots and sending money to terror groups.
If Mr Al-Rawi’s announcement was meant to pre-empt a blacklisting of T&T nationals by the US, the AG ought to be congratulated. But he also ought to be encouraged to ensure that his words of February 2 are quickly followed by deeds, including bringing the anti-terrorism legislation to Parliament as soon as possible and ensuring that the law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to address the threat.
In general, the T&T Government has got to be much quicker in responding to comments and decisions emanating out of Washington DC, the US capital, and New York, the country’s media and financial capital.
Our diplomats in Washington DC—and elsewhere in North America—need to be aggressive in protecting and promoting the national interest, now more than ever, given that the US is led by someone who is mercurial if not capricious.
