by Linda Straker
- OECS deportees include Dominica, Antigua, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines
- Grenada’s Deportees Registration Act provides for convicted individuals to be designated as restricted
- Unclear if central register under Commissioner’s management exists
Five Grenadians were deported from the United States in 2022 according to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 2022 Annual Report — an increase compared to the number of deportees for 2021 but a decrease for 2020. In those years there were 6 and 3 respectively.
Grenada’s Deportees Registration Act, Chapter 80A, makes provision for individuals who are convicted of certain serious offences in a foreign country and deported to Grenada, subject to an application to the High Court by the Commissioner of Police, to be designated as restricted individuals, and for a central register to be kept under the management of the Commissioner.
However, it is unclear if such a registry exists, as inquiries to the Office of the Commission have gone answered since 2020. The ICE report did not clearly outline the reason nor the offences committed for deporting the 5.
“An ICE removal is the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable non-citizen out of the United States.” The report explained that non-citizens are subject to final orders of removal issued by an immigration judge within the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) or through other lawful means such as expedited removal.
“Those removed include non-citizens arrested by ERO in the interior of the United States, as well as those apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the Southwest Border and subsequently transferred to ERO for removal,” said the report, which is available publicly on the ICE website.
Additionally, under the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) public health order under Title 42 in FY 2020, the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has carried out expulsions of those who arrive at the Southwest Border pursuant to the CDC’s Title 42 authority.
The report said that in 2022, ERO conducted nearly twice the number of administrative arrests it made in FY 2021. However, while the number of administrative arrests of non-citizens with criminal histories in FY 2022 was comparable to FY 2021, the number of arrests in the category of “other immigration violators” increased significantly as a result of the increase in Border Patrol encounters and ERO’s assistance to CBP in completing the processing of these cases in the interior United States.
For the OECS, the deportees were 5 to Dominica; 4 each to Antigua, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia, and 10 to St Vincent and the Grenadines.
