Given United States president-elect Donald Trump’s vow to commence mass deportation of illegal immigrants upon taking office next month, Guyanese-American immigration attorney Kinda Velloza said immigrant case filings around the country have been rapidly increasing.
She is urging Guyanese living in the US illegally to decide if they want to return home or if they want to stay and for the latter to begin legal petitions so as to avoid immediate deportation.
“I am advising them to have an application pending, so if they are ever accosted by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] they have a protection that something is pending in immigration court or the USCIS [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services]. If they don’t, chances are they will be on the next flight out,” Velloza, who heads the law firm Velloza and Associates, told the Stabroek News in an interview.
“Since the election results, we have seen a vast increase in cases. Our law firm has seen cases doubled… people are fearful. Don’t be [fearful]. . . I am telling them to decide on what they want; if they want to stay or return. If they want to stay, they have to get their documentation. If they have a qualifying member, they have to act fast…,” she added.
The immigration attorney said that in comparison to Caribbean islands, the percentage of Guyanese illegal immigrants is low and in nearly all of the cases are people who went to the US on a tourist/ business visa and overstayed their time.
“Our percentage is low and it is mostly those who have overstayed their time. These are the ones, without status… The Caribbean and Guyana, we overstay tourist visas whereas, Latin America you would see more entering illegally,” she said.
She said that people who at the time of the action taken by Trump have pending USCIS petitions pending “are in good graces” and likely won’t be affected. However, she is warning Guyanese who travel often and spend lengthy periods of time in the US that they are likely to also be affected.
Reuters yesterday reported that Trump, during an interview that aired on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” said he aimed to deport all immigrants in the US illegally over his four-year term but wanted a deal to protect “Dreamer” immigrants,
He also said he planned to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which confers citizenship on anyone born in the US regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Trump, a Republican who won a second term in the White House promising mass deportations, Reuters noted, is expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he takes office on January 20 and draw on resources from across the federal government to support a wide-ranging crackdown.
The US Department of Homeland Security estimated that there were some 11 million immigrants in the US illegally as of January 2022; the figure is likely higher today.
In the NBC News interview, Welker asked Trump if his plan was to deport everyone without legal status.
Velloza posited that under Republican leadership, immigration laws and rules are more stringent.
“Immigration in itself is discretionary, very discretionary. Just as, for example, the consulate officer at the US Embassy can deny you if they believe you do not meet the requirement or at CPB when you arrive, it is discretionary. So you would see that under President Trump immigration issues will be dealt with stricter. So Guyanese have to be aware and cautious on the use of their visa. If you say you have a job and are supposed to be working, you should get no more than two to four weeks of leave. And if you go and stay months, checks are going to be more rigid,” she contended.
“So if you are traveling frequently and staying for long periods, it is looked at as misrepresentation and they come down on those persons at the port of entries. So they have to be careful with travel also,” she added.
Velloza and Associates is based in Atlanta, Georgia with offices in other states and has 16 attorneys attached to it. Most of the cases, Velloza said, come from Caribbean nationals living in New York, California, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
She is also pleading with people to get a reputable immigration attorney to file their cases as minor mistakes in filling the application have seen cases lost and people sent back to their respective homelands.
“Now more than ever, it is imperative that persons get an immigration specialist to file their cases and not take the chance and do it on their own. Before, you would see that when a case is filed they would send for additional evidence and so forth. Under Trump, since his last term in office, the scrutiny is rigid. They don’t send for additionals and once denied you are sent the letter saying …and that you have 33 days to depart and then you are placed in removal proceedings. So, if they want to stay, do it and do it right,” she said.
Guyanese who are US green card holders, she posited, will also be targeted. “Guyanese that are also living in Guyana travelling back and forth would have noticed they could have been very lax during the democrats’ [tenure]. A lot of business persons in Guyana have green cards and they would just travel to keep it or do business. CPB will tell them to choose – give up green cards or stay in the US,” she said.
Cases in this category have already seen increases, Velloza said. “We have noticed that most Guyanese decide to give up the green card but they should know that there is no guarantee they will get a tourist visa if they do so. They will have to make a case just as everyone else,” she reasoned.
In the face of Trump’s threats of mass deportation of illegal aliens, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) has stated that it is not worried and Chairman Dickon Mitchell is encouraging people to return to their homelands as economic times in the region have changed for the better.
“For Caricom nationals, whatever policy the US implements under President Trump, it will have a minimal disruptive effect, but we will continue to monitor the situation and see how it plays out,” Mitchell, who is also Prime Minister of Grenada, had told this newspaper.
“I don’t know [if] we have a significant portion of illegal immigrants in North America itself. I obviously don’t have the data on that, but I think we don’t have a lot of illegal immigrants we have to necessarily worry about,” he added.
Mitchell posited that currently, “the Caribbean is a good place to be, so anyone who has the opportunity to come back home, if the policy impacts them, should [come],” he said.
“Guyana is now a thriving economy. Barbados is talking about a shortage of labour. St Vincent is talking about the shortage of labour, and Grenada has a shortage of labour. So if you have persons who are skilled and are looking for jobs, I think we have the capacity to absorb them,” he added.
