Declaring that Kingston will not pick a quarrel with Washington over its decision to deport criminal offenders and illegal migrants, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged Jamaicans in the United States who are facing hardship to return home but stay clean.

Since taking office last month, the Donald Trump Administration has been following through on its campaign promise to deport criminal offenders and individuals living in the United States illegally which includes some 5,120 Jamaicans who have been pegged for immediate removal. That number is expected to rise, depending on the outcome of appeals and additional immigration processes by other Jamaicans who have either been detained or who are unsuccessful in the process of regularising their statuses.

“Let me be clear, we respect the sovereign right of any country to determine their international security, public order, and social policy. We encourage all our Jamaicans who live in foreign countries, follow the law of the country in which you are resident; but never forget that Jamaica is your homeland, you are not homeless nor stateless,” the prime minister said in his keynote address at the Office of the National Security Advisor 2025 Security Seminar at AC Marriott Hotel in St Andrew on Thursday.

“What we are trying to build here is a place where every Jamaican can feel proud and comfortable to come back home. That’s what we want to build here — your homeland — and if you find it difficult where you are, come back here, ackee and salt fish was always good, you can get it. Don’t stay there and suffer, come back home,” Holness said.

The prime minister, who is also chair of the National Security Council, urged Jamaicans returning home to stay on the right side of the law.

“As I said before, don’t come back here to destroy [our] homeland and what we have been working very hard to create so that you wouldn’t have had to leave in the first place, and we have been making strides in that regard. So expect to be dealt with, with a firm hand if your intent is criminal,” Holness cautioned.

“Come back and help build your homeland so that we can stand up with pride with the citizens of the world about your country; that you don’t have to be economic refugees. Disabuse yourselves of this notion that you can only make it through crime and therefore you are going to join a gang and therefore become part of the problem,” he said adding, “I appeal to all of you who have been exposed overseas and seen what prosperity is like, come back home and let us work together to build the prosperous nation Jamaica is destined to be. Don’t come back here with guns.”

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.

On January 28 White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, answering questions about deportations during the first press briefing of Trump’s second term, said, “The president has said countless times that he is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals and if you are an individual, a foreign national who illegally enters the United States of America, you are, by definition, a criminal and therefore you are subject to deportation.”

“The president has also said two things can be true at the same time: we want to deport illegal criminals, illegal immigrants from this country, but the president has said, of course, the illegal criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country and who have terrorised law-abiding American citizens, absolutely, those should be the priority of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), but that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals entering our nation’s borders are off the table,” she declared.

Meanwhile, in referencing news reports that Florida is contemplating requiring people sending remittances to provide a higher level of identification, Holness said while he had not verified the authenticity of that claim, it would be “very useful” to Jamaica if it led to the capture of criminals “who are also illegal migrants, to put some effort on those who are trying to send back guns to Jamaica”.

“The remittance coming back to Jamaica is helping grandma in some remote community to survive an extra day, so too is the barrel with rice, but it is unfortunate when the gun is in that rice. So if it is the objective to capture those criminals it would be very useful to start asking for a higher level of identification for those criminals who are sending back the guns in the speaker boxes and in the bag of rice and in the soap powder as we call it,” he said.

In the meantime, the prime minister said his Administration remained “committed to doing our part, which requires not just strengthening our national security capabilities but also forging deeper, more operationally effective regional cooperation”.

“This is why we have been investing so heavily in our national security architecture,” Holness said while indicating that Jamaica is on the verge of signing the Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement which will establish a legal framework for the Jamaica Customs Agency and the US Customs and Border Protection Agency to exchange customs-related information to strengthen capacity to safeguard Jamaica, its borders, and vital economic organs.

He said Jamaica is now advancing the proposed agreement to the final stage of the approval process which includes Cabinet consent.