BARBADOS' Consul General to New York Jessica Odle has warned undocumented Barbadians they could be deported from the United States if Congress approves
the Immigration Bill.

The Immigration Bill has prompted thousands of people to take to the streets in various cities across the United States in recent times, and Odle has urged Barbadians
to speak out against the bill since it will affect Bajans living in the United States.

Speaking at the Savannah Hotel last week, Odle said: "Some of the clauses would make some people out-of-status instantly and therefore felons and eligible for deportation. Felonies used to be murders, firearm crimes and drug crimes. Now undocumentation is listed among those things, and you can see that that can cause draconian challenges.

"What that means for the Caribbean and Barbados in particular, is if that bill goes through, by virtue of being undocumented for any purpose, you are eligible for deportation.

"Anybody who is known to assist you in helping to regularise your status would almost be an accessory, and punishable by a fine. This is if the bill goes through as it is currently before the House [of Representatives]," she said.

"If this happens and the deportation numbers rise through the region, there will be some implications for the Caribbean as a whole. That must not happen."

Odle said this had the potential "to erode what really has been a huge wave of movement of people from the last century and even before that has helped to build the United States".

The consul general added that there was a United States government arrangement for an illegal immigrant to return to their country of origin, and reapply for return as a "guest worker" if they were in the United States for two years or less illegally.

She said that arrangement was "thrown out", adding that another arrangement was also made for people who were in the United States for two to five years illegally. She said they would have been able to reapply within the United States for an application. That too had been discarded.

"In any country you have to respect their immigration laws, so it is not in any way
to suggest that the United States shouldn't recognise wrongdoing. But given the number and the nature, and given the fact that immigrant societies have made the United States what it is – and some people have been there and paying taxes for years – the issue of the reform of that Immigration Bill needs to be revisited."

Last week Monday 100 000 people marched to the State Capitol in Washington to urge Congress to enact immigration reform, including a legal process towards citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The House of Representatives and Senate leaders said last Tuesday they planned to downgrade the federal version to a misdemeanour.

Last week the Associated Press reported that the Senate in Phoenix, Arizona, approved legislation to make illegal immigrants subject to the state's criminal trespassing law.