US immigrant visa pause an opportunity for Caribbean to strenghten regional ties

 

Dr. Ronnie Yearwood, Deputy Dean and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, has said the Caribbean should see the freeze on immigrant visas by the United States as an opportunity to strengthen regional ties.

 

The US on Wednesday announced a suspension of immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, including Jamaica. This will take effect January 21.

 

"If the United States is closing doors on us, why don't we open the doors for each other? Because why should we be creating barriers for each other? Stimulate regional trade. There's plenty of studies by the Caribbean Development Bank that tell us if we can get regional trade, travel going, millions, billions of dollars can flow through the region. So it's not that we don't have opportunities, but it seems that we are so fixed and hellbent and focused on the States and getting out, that we don't recognise the power we have," he argued. 

 

"The Caribbean, for example, I think it spends something in the region of $35 billion collectively in terms of the trade between America and us. That's a lot of money. Why aren't we trying to re-focus our economies, re-focus our politics on us as a region? Realise that there's power in our numbers, there's power in the millions of us here in the Caribbean. Create the opportunities for our young people, open doors for them, and get them to stay," urged the academic, who was a guest Wednesday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines. 

 

Dr. Yearwood said persons who have already started the process of obtaining their immigrant visas may be in limbo, describing their situation as unfortunate considering many have had a long wait to join their family members abroad. 

 

"There's no timeline of when the review process is going to happen," he noted, adding that the US could, in a few months, announce an extention of the freeze, or it could perhaps remove some countries from the list. 

 

"It's sad that the folks who would have spent their money, their time, and their resources to make their application, they are kind of just staying there in status because, you know, if you're in Jamaica or wherever you are - Barbados, Dominica, Belize - it's not that you can just up and leave and go to America now, because you're waiting for your visa applications...to come through and to be processed. And that's a sad part," he lamented.

 

Dr. Yearwood argued that the Trump administration's basis for enacting the policy is flawed as immigrants are not a strain on the system but rather major contributors to the development of their adopted homes. 

 

Reach out to US Embassy 

 

In the meantime, Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said the US Embassy will provide further clarity on the decision by the United States to suspend the processing of immigrant visas.

 

Ms. Johnson Smith advised Jamaicans who will be affected to reach out to the US Embassy for information.

 

In a post on X, Mrs. Johnson Smith said detailed information on the policy change is not yet available, but she is encouraging persons to use the appropriate channels to obtain information.

 

She said the policy shift applies only to persons seeking to live permanently in the US, noting that the change does not affect applications for regular tourist visas, student visas, business visas, or visas that are part of seasonal farm work and hospitality programmes.