What is the justification for taking in deportees from the US?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Many people are very suspicious of the proposed deal by which this country would transfer US deportees to their home countries. 

We know that many people want to get into the US, and large numbers of them, especially Latin Americans, do so illegally. And we appreciate what a huge problem this creates for the US.

What scares us is the way US authorities are handling the problem. The agency responsible, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has been so extreme as to have provoked a huge nationwide Abolition movement. Last year, 31 people have reported to have died while in their custody.

The ICE’s manner of apprehension and treatment of alleged ‘suspects’ is the greatest source of concern. Its culmination came in the public shooting deaths of two innocent individuals in Minneapolis last year, Renee Good, mother of two young children, and Alex Pretti, an Intensive Care nurse. This really shocked the nation.

Human rights do not appear to be a priority for ICE. Put this in the guiding context of Donald Trump’s openly and vulgarly expressed racism, especially towards Haitians and Africans.

Then ask: Isn’t Jamaica, like several other small countries, being used as a cover for America’s current crude exclusion, often on unjust grounds, of unwanted migrants? Is this the kind of thing that Jamaican wants to be a part of?

Dr Chang’s only justifying reason is that “America is one of our strongest bilateral partners”. In effect, that this is the kind of thing you do for a bilateral partner. 

HORACE LEVY