NEW YORK, USA — Jamaican-American immigration attorneys here have warned their undocumented compatriots to take seriously threats by Donald Trump to deport millions of illegal immigrants, should he return to the White House after tomorrow’s presidential election.

With the race excruciatingly tight hours before the last day of voting, according to opinion polls, the former president could still pull off a win over Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris, the attorneys said.

“While it is not possible to just pick up hundreds or thousands of people, put them on a plane and fly them out of the country, it is important that undocumented Jamaicans take steps to protect themselves,” Florida-based attorney Wayne Golding told the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

Arguing that undocumented immigrants do not have much recourse to law, Golding advised such Jamaicans to be prepared to “fight their case in immigration court, bearing in mind that each person’s case is unique, and a different option might have to be applied to fight each case”.

Jamaican-born Irwine Clare, who heads Caribbean Immigration Services (CIS), which has helped many Jamaicans and others to navigate their immigration status, also suggested that “Trump’s rhetoric and deportation plans should not be taken lightly”.

Clare said even the Dreamers — a category of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children — are also threatened under Trump’s deportation plans, despite many having gone to college, set up businesses or are raising families.

He was also worried that deportation on the scale being contemplated by Trump could cost Jamaica dearly in reduced levels of remittances.

Both Clare and Golding urged Jamaicans in the US who are eligible to vote to do so, implying that a Harris Administration would not be as draconian as Trump, whose previous regime has advocated an end to chain migration, the means by which most Jamaicans migrate to the United States.

Trump has made the deportation of illegal or undocumented immigrants a centrepiece of his campaign, accusing the Biden/Harris Government of allowing millions of illegal people to pour into the country.

“They are murderers, rapists and bad people who are poisoning the blood of our country,” he has consistently told large crowds at his rallies across the country. Most illegal immigrants in the country enter through the US southern border with Mexico.

On the campaign trail, Harris has countered that a bi-partisan border bill negotiated and piloted by Republican Senator James Lankford was scuttled by Trump who persuaded Republicans in Congress to vote against the measure.

Harris and others have accused Trump of taking the action to ensure that the Administration would not be able to campaign on the issue as a success of its immigration policy. The Bill would have provided increased funding, additional border patrol agents and more judges to deal with immigrants seeking asylum.

In respect of undocumented Jamaicans living in the US, there are no data to confirm their numbers, but many are believed to be in the country for upwards of a decade. Most are also believed to have entered the country legally — such as on a visitor’s visa — but have overstayed their time in the country.

The Observer was not able to find anyone willing to discuss their situation in detail, but there were expressions of genuine fear among those who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Golding said that to undertake the level of deportation being contemplated by Trump “Congress would possibly have to be involved as it would require changes to laws. Even then there are things that he can do through executive order. It is therefore imperative that Jamaicans who are undocumented avail themselves about what is at stake and take protective action where possible”.

One thing that has to be considered is the situation of undocumented Jamaicans with an American-born child or children and what would be their fate if the parent is deported, said Golding.

For immigrants who might want to claim that they could be hurt or even killed should they be deported, Golding said, “asylum could be considered. But he warned that such claims would have to be proven.

“My advice is that they seek the services of a qualified attorney, and avoid taking counsel from those on the street corner as they could end up in deeper problems,” said Golding, adding:

“Whatever the situation, the likelihood of the former president carrying out his deportation plans, should he return to the White House, should not be taken lightly as there are warning signs.”

Doug Stone, a Westchester County, New York immigration attorney, who counts many Jamaicans among his clients, said undocumented immigrants who posed a threat to public safety, national security, or border security risk have the most to be concerned about Trump’s deportation plans.

Commenting on the issue, New York-based immigration attorney Winston Tucker was sceptical that Trump could achieve the level of mass deportation he is talking about, suggesting “this is his trump card back to the Oval Office”.

He noted that in the past, the Department of Homeland Security did not have the level of resources to remove significant numbers of undocumented immigrants, leading to an estimated one million being left in the court system when Trump left office.

Tucker said that he believes that could be the case this time again, “as it will take a large amount of resources to do what the former president is proposing”. He said there is also the matter of prosecutorial discretion — a process by which those deemed removables would be prioritised based on their individual case”.

He, too, cautioned undocumented immigrants not to allow fear to drive them into the arms of unscrupulous practitioners in their effort to get on the right side of the law.