Sobers digs in against illegal migrants

Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers speaks during a post cabinet press briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, on October 30. - Photo by Ayanna Kinsale

MINISTER of Foreign Affairs Sean Sobers maintained the government's hard-line position against the presence of illegal migrants in TT, originally voiced by Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander.

Sobers was replying to Newsday's query at the post-cabinet briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, on October 30, also attended by Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen and Nicholas Morris, parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Newsday had asked Sobers if he wished to tweak the message of his cabinet colleague of "mass deportation" of illegal immigrants to instead say deportation would be only targeted at those involved in crime. Newsday asked about alarm in the Venezuelan community in TT, amid migrants being roughly handled by paramilitary agents in the US, and a need for TT to be a friend to all.

Sobers flatly declined to change the government's message.

He said, "What I would say, Sean, is that I am not minded to tweak anything that the Minister of Homeland Security would have indicated.

"As a matter of fact, if someone is illegal here, they have committed an offence under the Immigration Act.

"If you enter illegally it is an immigration offence and actually a criminal offence. And if you overstay, it is an immigration offence, which deems you essentially to be illegal and subject to a special inquiry and to be deported.

"So if the numbers suggest we have mass persons who have breached those regulations and legislation, then yes pursuant to the special inquiry they will be deported."

He said that was what Alexander had indicated and was what the government stood by as an administration.

Saying scenarios of families torn apart by burly agents had dented the global image of the US and its tourism and agriculture sectors, Newsday asked if TT should avoid emulating that and whether he could allay such fears among migrants in TT.

Sobers replied, "One, I don't know such fears exist. Two, what you are describing, according to you, are situations or imagery that occurred somewhere in the north, and these deportations are a normal exercise that the immigration authorities conduct. So we are not doing anything abnormal."

Asked about reports of two TT nationals reportedly killed in US military strikes on alleged drug boats in this region, Sobers promised to make inquiries of the Minister of Homeland Security and Police Commissioner. Otherwise he declared once you are law-abiding fisher-folk or leisure boat operators, you have nothing to fear from boat-strikes.

Sobers was unfazed by Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles meeting Venezuelan Ambassador Alvaro Sanchez Cordero. "We are unbothered. We didn't know. It's a democracy."

He said TT had formally condemned the Venezuelan National Assembly's recent resolution that criticised Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as a "persona non grata."

Sobers said he had his own opinion on recent protests against Persad-Bissessar – where demonstrators held up placards featuring defaced images of TT's PM – but otherwise he said protests were part of a democracy. Otherwise, he said he accepted accounts from the US military that recent boat-strikes had occurred in international waters.

Regarding reports of two TT nationals killed in the boat-strikes, he said there was no evidence of any such persons being killed by a military strike.

He cautioned against "wild, spurious allegations." Asking the media to report sensibly and factually, Sobers said, "Don't contribute to fear-mongering."

Newsday asked if he could surmise the truth about the two purported TT victims by observing how the Venezuelan authorities may or may not have published details of the other 40 or so purported victims of recent boat-strikes. Sobers advised Newsday to seek such details from Venezuela.