However, United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Mary Kramer retorted that there is no factual basis to show a linkage between U.S. deportees and rising crime rate in the Caribbean. President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo has quite correctly questioned this finding. How so?

Well, the U.S. national average for recidivism over a 2-year period is about 41 per cent; this means that 41 per cent of the average U.S. parolees revisit prison at the end of each 2-year period. Then, given this recidivism rate, how can this U.S. Representative say that there is no linkage between their deportees and rising crimes; Ambassador Kramer’s assertion on a non-linkage between deportees and rising crime is preposterous.

And for U.S. Government officials to dilute their deportee impact on crime in these parts, while not surprising, is blatantly misplaced. The Ambassador and her colleagues may find it more prudent to focus research on reforming procedures for improving deportation; providing funding to receiving countries; and to reducing Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) enforcement activities; instead of making non-evidentiary statements, clearly without factoring in the implications of recidivism.

But why are U.S. criminal deportees arriving with such frequency to Guyana and the Caribbean? The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of the U.S. signed into law by President Clinton on September 30, 1996, introduced sweeping changes to immigration policy initiated since the 1920s. The IIRAIRA criminal deportees from the U.S. to Guyana and the Caribbean generally are convicted of aggravated felonies.

There are two types of aggravated felonies – category crimes and sentence crimes. Category crimes are seen as aggravated felonies regardless of the sentence involved. Sentence crimes refer to those aggravated felonies that necessitate an imposed sentence of at least one year.

Some specific crimes of violence have been used as a basis for deportation. Crimes of violence – this type of crime is an offense that involves the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force, or any other offense that is a felony involving a substantial physical force against the person or property may be utilized.

Crimes of violence are murder, physical assaults, drug trafficking crime, and illicit trafficking in firearms or destructive devices. Other crimes of violence considered aggravated felonies are felony drunk driving; aggravated driving under the influence; arson; involuntary manslaughter; criminal contempt; criminally negligent child abuse; sexual abuse of a minor; and statutory rape. These are all deportable offences for both legal permanent residents (Green Card Holders) and illegal immigrants.

Criminal deportees from North America have been a factor among other factors in the 2002-2003 crime wave in Guyana, and general crimes in the Caribbean. Indeed, criminal deportees have been intensively socialized in the criminal fields in the U.S. These deportees are in full possession of their U.S. criminal tool kit. Indeed, their criminal training in a developed society gives them an advantage in the pursuit of criminal activities over Guyana’s petty home-grown criminals.

Griffith (2000) pointed out that criminal deportees have produced an upward change in crime trends in Guyana. In fact, Nolan and Rosales (1998) noted that a large number of deportees are hard-core criminals, and their return to their home countries has contributed to gang violence and to increased drug-trafficking in the region.

Taylor and Aleinikoff (1998) indicated that foreign diplomats report that the return of deportees is the main reason for penetratingly rising crime rates in the Caribbean and Central America. They also suggest that the U.S. should be concerned with foreign-born offenders after they are deported; like the U.S. gangs in El Salvador, many such criminal deportees reestablish and reinforce international criminal syndicates; they point out, too, that deportee drug traffickers persist in their drug trade, enhanced with connections to the U.S.

An official at the daily Gleaner said that “the island suffered one of its bloodiest years in 1996 in part because of the return of dangerous criminals. The 925 people murdered topped the 889 people killed in 1980 during the island’s worst election year” (1999).

Deportees with such criminal backgrounds who are posted back to Guyana and the Caribbean invariably will continue with the criminal lifestyles learnt in the U.S. The deportees’ criminal activities in Guyana have not comprehensively been presented to the public. Clearly, a network of relationships grounded in criminal behaviour exists among some deportees. Networks rather than individually-produced crimes tend to have greater sustainability and productivity in criminality; and therefore, the network factor must be injected in crime-fighting tactics and strategy. And the U.S. has to do more for Guyana and the Caribbean in crime fighting; as problems associated with deportee criminality can rebound to the U.S.