Prime Minister Andrew Holness has warned deportees with criminal intentions that they will “either meet a judge or [their] maker” if they seek to wreak havoc in Jamaica after being returned to the island.

Holness made the remarks on Friday amid heightened concern regarding intensified implementation of US immigration policy under the new administration of President Donald Trump, with reports that 5,120 Jamaicans with questionable antecedents are targeted for removal in raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I would want to reassure Jamaicans that your government has long been planning and putting in place measures to address any changes in policy in the United States,” Holness said. “Jamaicans all over the world will always be welcomed back to your homelands and we are prepared to receive all our hard-working Jamaicans who have been in the United States.”

However, the prime minister added: “But let me be clear that for those Jamaicans who intend to come back with crime and violence to undermine what we have been building here, let me be clear to you that this is not the Jamaica that you left 10 or 20 years ago.

“It is not the JCF that you left 10 or 20 years ago. You will either meet a judge or your maker if you come back to Jamaica and violate our laws and create havoc,” he said.

Holness was speaking at handing over ceremonies for the New Social Housing Programme in South St James.

Trump began his second term on January 20 with a flood of executive actions aimed at revamping US immigration. His administration quickly moved to ramp up deportations by, among other things, relaxing rules governing enforcement actions at “sensitive” locations such as schools, churches, and workplaces.