The talk of the town’s about the certainty we’ll be taking back our citizens who’re gonna be deported from the US in the Trump-inspired move. Trump’s move will eventually see more than 11 million “undocumented” aliens being sent to their native lands. At least that’s the number being thrown around. But is it for real?? After all, the number itself is just a residual after the number of folks who show up on US censuses as being from foreign is reduced by the number that was supposed to be there legally!! But whatever the number – for instance, the one your Eyewitness saw for us is 1294 – we know we’ll be getting back some.
Now, a certain percentage of that will be those who were caught in criminal activities. “Criminal convictions” – particularly for aggravated felonies and crimes of moral turpitude —have historically been a steady and very common reason for deportation.
In 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 271,484 non-citizens : the highest number since 2014!! Of these, 88,763 had charges or convictions for criminal activity; 3,706 were known or suspected gang members; 237 were known or suspected terrorists, and eight were human rights violators!! That’s more than one-quarter of a million deported in the fag end of Sleepy Joe’s administration – of which 93,000 were criminals!! And we thought he was soft!!
In that net, some Guyanese had to have been caught and sent home; it’s just that we haven’t been reporting those numbers. Have they really been creating mayhem around the country?? Not that your Eyewitness can see, from the reports on crimes that flood our dailies. Sure, some crop up every now and then – but certainly not to talk about us being “invaded” by criminals!!
Where is your Eyewitness going with this?? Simply to say that he agrees with the VP that we should take back our own – knowing full well that some of them will be bad eggs. But ain’t they Guyanese and our sisters and brothers too?? Some will say that those aforementioned bad eggs will end up costing us a pretty penny. But over the last four DECADES, haven’t our Guyanese diaspora been the LARGEST source of foreign funds to our dear Mudland?? We’re talking about an average of US$300,000,000 ANNUALLY!! That’s more than rice and sugar brought in over those years!!
So, yes…let’s not begrudge that we will have to stretch our hands out to some of them now!! Hey…we’re doing it for all those Venezuelans pouring over our western border, aren’t we?? So, your Eyewitness is really teed-off at those alarmists who’re doing a Paul Revere, screaming, “The criminals are coming!! The Criminals are coming!!”
No! Our own who were trying to do better are returning!!
…a quid pro quo??
Well, what do you know??! Looks like there are wheels within wheels on Trump’s shakeup of the world order!! Take Mad Maduro, over in Venezuela – yes, please!! – we all assumed from the rhetoric that we were gonna have a big showdown at the OK Corral between the Madman and the Gringo, didn’t we?? We’ve all seen the movies – always ending with the madman literally biting the dust and the Gringo blowing the smoke from the mouth of his six-shooter!! Well, Gringo Trump is certainly blowing smoke from his gun, but the madman ain’t in the dust!! Instead, we see the Gringo’s representative flying down to Miraflores Palace to NEGOTIATE an arrangement that’ll satisfy the two supposed antagonists!!
Representative Grenfell returned with six Yanks who’d been accused (wink…wink!) of plotting the madman’s overthrow -and the Madman AGREED to take back ANY NUMBER of Venezuelans Trump sees fit to send back!!
Did Trump intimidate Mad Maduro?? Hardly…Chevron’s still shipping 220,000 barrels of oil daily to the US!!
…tribute from the colonies?
So how are we to take the declaration that 25% tariffs will be imposed on all goods coming into the US from Canada and Mexico – with 10% on those from China??
Let’s not count our chickens, shall we??