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Jamaican gov't assessing developments in relation to Trump policies

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Information Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon
 
By Racquel Porter
   
As fears of deportation and the potential impact of a global freeze on foreign aid heighten amid US President Donald Trump's policies, the Government of Jamaica says it is assessing the developments.
 
Caribbean governments have been urged to be proactive and put contingency plans in place to receive their nationals.
 
Information Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon says the National Security Council met last Thursday, with the matter of mass deportations under active consideration.
 
"They met and they were looking at these matters, and so we have not been, you know, ignorant of them. We've been looking at them,we've been assessing them. The Ministry of foreign affairs has been in constant dialogue with our US partners, as they always have, and the minister will be giving further updates in very short order in relation to this. But, please, rest assured that up to the level of the National Security Council. We've been looking at these matters and developing positions in relation to our response to them and you will definitely be the first to hear - the members of the media - in relation to our responses to what is happening on on those fronts," she said at Wednesday morning's post-Cabinet press briefing.
 
Last week, President Trump ordered a 90-day freeze to allow time for a review of which humanitarian, development, and security programmes will continue receiving funding from the United States.
 
The President also paused federal grants and loans within the United States, but a judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked that effort.
 
On Wednesday, the US Office of Management and Budget rescinded its call for a pause on payments for federal grants and other programmes.
 
The White House says only the original memo calling for the freeze had been rescinded — not its effort to review federal spending.
 
In the meantime, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has listed several other Caribbean countries whose citizens are facing deportation.
 
Haiti tops the list for the region with 32,363 individuals, followed by the Dominican Republic with 12,699 and third is Jamaica.
 
Smaller Caribbean nations are also featured, including Barbados with 151, St. Lucia with 202, and Grenada, 149.
 
Mexico leads the global list with a staggering 252,044 cases.
 


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