SDMS’ Maharaj predicts upsurge in crime due to deportation

In a recent television interview, US President- elect Trump estimated the number of illegal immigrants with criminal records as between two and three million people.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million — it could be even three million — we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.” Trump said.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj observed that the number of TT deportees could number in the “thousands” should the United States enact mass deportations from its soil. “I feel we would have a few thousand of our citizens being posted back because they are not there legally and when they come here, you will have a number of social issues that will immediately arise and one of those issues is employment because we are in a depression now, a lot of unemployment and when you come back from New York or Boston, you have other skills that you transmit to other people here so that we should expect an upsurge in criminality,” Maharaj said.

“The murder rate has crossed 400 already and with these people coming down here, it will exacerbate the social situations that we are experiencing right now,” he added.

Asked whether Caricom should take a united stance on the issue, he said, “well I think it will be wise for the Caricom to get together and make representations,” he said.

“We don’t have the international clout to influence events in the United States, we too small for that but as a region, jointly we might have some kind of clout,” he said.

Meanwhile, San Fernando Business Association, president Daphne Bartlett has described Trump’s decision as a “good management decision” which should be emulated by other leaders. “He has to look after his citizens and his country so if he chooses to send back criminals from his country to their respective countries, that is well within his rights, and if I were living in America, I would feel the same way,” Bartlett said.

“Similarly, I live in Trinidad and Tobago and if we have non-nationals who are criminals here, we would expect that our Prime Minister would do the same and send them back to the countries where they come from, instead of us harbouring them and feeding them and spending $23,000 every month feeding them in the prison,” she said, adding, “send them packing where they came from because there are many non-nationals who commit crime and who are in our country.” “So I don’t know what the big hue and cry is about sending back criminals to their country, that’s a good management decision he has made because those are the ones who commit crime, they don’t belong there but I think other leaders should take the lead from Mr Trump,” she said.