55 J’cans to be deported from US this month
Published:Wednesday | February 19, 2025 | 12:09 AMLester Hinds/Gleaner Writer
Fifty-five Jamaicans are slated to be deported to Jamaica from the United States (US) on February 27, but one prominent name is not among them.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke will not be among those returned to Jamaica despite reports circulating on social media, a security official at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington DC told The Gleaner yesterday.
“We have received several calls about Coke being returned on February 27, but there is no truth to those rumours,” said the security official at the embassy.
Coke is slated to be released from a US prison in 2029 and the security official at the embassy said that no word has come from the US administration about an early release for him.
Coke, who has been described as a Jamaican drug lord and head of the Shower Posse, was sentenced to 23 years in a US prison after being extradited to the US in 2010 and found guilty in a New York Court on charges brought by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
NO SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN DEPORTATIONS
The security official at the embassy said the number of Jamaicans being returned is in keeping with the numbers seen most months and there has been no significant increase in the numbers despite the heightened crackdown on undocumented migrants in the US by the Donald Trump administration.
The security official also told The Gleaner that there has not been a significant increase in the number of Jamaicans, who are out of status in the US, calling and seeking to return home.
He said several who are out of status and who called the embassy were seeking travel documents so they could return to the island.
“There has been no significant increase in calls recently from those seeking to self-deport,” he told The Gleaner.
However, Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, during a Let’s Connect Diaspora Town Hall earlier this month, had said there had been an increase in the number of Jamaicans in the US who are out of status who are reaching out to the embassy seeking to return home.
Marks said at the time that there had been an increase in the number of Jamaicans seeking to return home before being deported.
“Some people do not want the indignity of being deported, so where they are out of status they are reaching out to take steps to return to Jamaica,” the ambassador had said.
WAIVING RIGHTS
Marks had further pointed out that some Jamaicans who were in deporting proceedings and who were entitled to due process were waiving their right to such due process so they could return to Jamaica. She said however that she did not have the details.
“Not everyone who is deported has committed a crime and so we have to be careful how we assess them,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Embassy in Washington DC has introduced an immigration corner on its website to advise Jamaicans.
A message on the website states, “As you know, we are unable to provide legal advice. We are however concerned that some of our citizens may need that kind of advice. We have therefore provided below, a list of attorneys known to us and who may be able to assist.
“This list is not exhaustive, so we encourage you to ask other trusted sources such as pastors and other community leaders for recommendations. Please take care as best as possible to ensure that you are receiving advice from reputable sources and not persons seeking to take advantage of our community members’ heightened anxiety.
“While we have always reminded our citizens to abide by the laws of the country in which you have chosen to live, we encourage you to be even more careful and alert. You should also take very good care to stay tuned to legitimate sources of information regarding changes in laws such as the fact that offences like shoplifting may now lead to jail and possible deportation.”