Two United States immigration services officials who say “Jamaicans are being impacted heavily” as the deportation enforcement operations threatened by President Donald Trump take full effect, are urging the island’s Government to brace itself for a flood of returnees who have no family or homes here.
According to Audrey Morrison Lawson, proprietor of Midas Immigration Services, a full-service immigration firm based in Miami, Florida, concerns about the raids being conducted by officers of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “elevated” among members of the Jamaican community there.
On Tuesday an NBC news report said as of that afternoon there have been at least 4,829 arrests in the crackdowns which began since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20. It said the Trump Administration is planning to conduct major immigration raids in three US cities per week.
According to the media house, ICE’s 25 field offices were told in a meeting with senior leadership over the weekend to enhance their “routine operations” by meeting a quota of between 1,200 and 1,500 arrests per day.
NBC said in September 2024, the latest data available showed that the Joe Biden Administration arrested an average of 282 people per day. It said over the last six days, the Trump Administration’s daily average is 753.
According to Morrison Lawson, who said only one of her clients has been detained, some Jamaicans have already lost employment as fears heighten.
“We have been seeing ICE raids coming closer and closer to home and by home we are really referring to the people that we serve, for example some of my clientèle. They are nervous, they are scared, they are confused because of the position that some of them are in. We have people who have lost jobs because the employers don’t want to hire because they don’t want to invite the presence of ICE or any other authority to their premises. Employers who were more receptive to undocumented immigrants, who were extending an arm, they are a little bit wary right now,” she said.
“We even have people who are legal residents who are really scared. We are even seeing an increase in applications for citizenship as well. On a daily basis I try to do a lot of information sessions via TikTok and
Zoom. We have been having virtual town hall meetings for the community. For the past week we have interacted with about 600 people; everybody is calling, my phone is ringing off the hook throughout the day,” she stated.
Resident attorney for Midas Dionnie Wynter Pfunde, saidr that ICE operatives have used varying tactics to make arrests.
“One individual, about two weeks ago, they were called in by ICE, they were told that they had forgotten to sign a document and they went in and were detained. ICE can do that in the name of national security. I am aware of a lot of people who have been detained. A lot of Jamaicans have been detained. I think the prime minister should be bracing himself on how he is going to rehabilitate these individuals that have not been in the country for the last four to seven years, that have not been back to Jamaica,” she said.
“Some of them don’t have a home there; their whole family is living in the United States, they have been here for the last five to seven years and they will need some kind of rehabilitation, so that’s food for thought,” she pointed out.
In the meantime, she noted that the raids are not novel.
“What we are seeing is a large enforcement of US immigration laws; it’s not as if the president has implemented anything new, what the president has said is that in the first 100 days we are going to see a large enforcement of the removal of criminal and undocumented individuals inside the United States. So what ICE is now doing is carrying out the president’s orders. The priority are undocumented individuals, the illegals, meaning you are in the United States without any kind of lawful status,” the attorney explained.
“Second, you are undocumented and you have some kind of criminal record, and then we have other categories of individuals who came through the border, have been living here more than 14 days, under two years and have done nothing to regularise their status. So the president, through the executive orders under Article 1 of the Constitution, is making them a priority. If you are a US citizen, if you are a green card holder you are in a safe category. If you are a green card holder with any kind of criminal history, any kind of removal order, you have been ordered removed from the United States, you are at risk,” she said.
Meanwhile, she said individuals who have violated the terms of their visitor’s visas and are working or have overstayed will find themselves in hot water.
“If ICE has an enforcement order for one of the categories we spoke of and they are knocking on that door and you are there and you cannot prove your status they won’t leave you behind. It’s almost like the good may suffer for the bad. You cannot work on a visitor’s visa, that’s not new,” Wynter Pfunde declared.
The attorney, in the meantime, is urging calm.
“Some people are saying they are going to just pack their bags and go home. No, that’s what the president wants. We are saying, even if you are undocumented, you have rights. We don’t want to frighten or scare people, but if you are living in the United States and you are undocumented, get your house in order. Reach out to the professionals and sort yourself,” she encouraged.
Trump began his second term on January 20 with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling US immigration.
His Administration quickly moved to ramp up deportations, including by relaxing rules governing enforcement actions at “sensitive” locations such as schools, churches and workplaces.