The Tribune

By Malcolm Strachan

AS the dawn of a new year emerged with the clock striking midnight on January 1, 2018, many Bahamians naturally would have wondered what would be the government’s next move regarding illegal immigration. After Prime Minister Minnis’ bold proclamation landed him in the spotlight (again), many of us were unsure as to what new levels of enforcement would be implemented.

Perhaps this was due to the fact we have crossed this bridge many times with the initiative losing steam before it ever reached completion. Successive administrations have dabbled with clamping down on illegal immigration for many years before international pressure lead to efforts cooling off under the spectre of negative publicity.

This time may have been different though – many would have thought. How could it not be?

With Haitian sloops pulling up to our shores in clear sight of our nation’s first line of defence of our borders - mere weeks after the prime minister’s announcement – some alluded to Minnis’ statements as being causal to opening the floodgates.

Certainly, he must have been ready to turn it up a notch to send a clear message to illegals and the consortium that are party to this human trafficking ring that he means business.

However, as the weeks wound down in 2017, despite a few apprehension and deportation exercises, there was no policy implemented that indicated any sign of a change on December 31, 2017. None.

In fact, you could have heard a pin drop on the prime minister’s designated “doomsday” for illegal immigrants to either become regularised or leave.

As the citizenry’s eagerness to read the headlines on the first official day of news for 2018 ballooned, Immigration Minister Brent Symonette let the air out when he indicated there was never any allusion by the prime minister that there would be a policy change. It was just “talk” – him advising the illegal migrants to leave, and also cautioning businesses which employ undocumented migrants to go through the proper compliance procedures or face the consequences.

Symonette only echoed those sentiments, stating the government will begin to “crackdown” on businesses – as administrations would have failed to do so in the past.

Needless to say, this was certainly not what the populace was hoping to hear. But should we really be surprised? Did we really expect the government to unleash the hounds into the shanty towns and in the other communities where illegal migrants reside?

Surely not. One thing we should all have learned by now is politicians are in the game of politics and are overly concerned with their public image. They refrain from making the tough calls because of how it would make them look – even if it means allowing an issue that has been tumorous to our country’s socio-economic condition to thrive for decades too long.

Perhaps this new year, we should wish for the fortitude to stop relying on politicians to change our conditions and put more emphasis on people and what we attribute to our circumstances.

Consider the leaders of the business community’s latent warning to its members in regard to the government’s decision to focus on the role they play in illegal immigration. You have these individuals cautioning the government to be humane and to take the business community’s impact on the economy into consideration. This type of deflection from the issue at hand is indicative of the individualistic approach too many take in regard to our country’s development.

To that end, it comes down to a simple question: how is it reasonable to discard the effects illegal immigration has on our country on a macro-level simply because a particular group of business owners want to enjoy the luxury of cheap labour? The notion itself is absurd, yet, we question why so many other facets of our society do not work well.

While many of our communities have been overtaken with violence, and some neighbourhoods are bordered with the inhumane conditions of shanty towns, too many of us take on the approach of a “us” and “them” mentality when talking about other Bahamians. Let’s not pretend this is not the case. For the families able to afford a private education for their children, who have private medical care, who live in the neighbourhoods not subjugated to the ills that can come along with having a lower income, this is all too easily ignored.

Now, when this comes to the fore of the national conversation, we see self-interest prevailing – typically through politics. In this instance, you either have various factions seeking to gain a political advantage – or others, like those from the business community, lobbying for leniency on illegal migrants over fear of a negative impact to their bottom lines.

Whatever happened to wanting a better Bahamas for Bahamians? Why does this become more illusory the older our nation gets?

Sooner or later we ought to realise that like any machine which requires some level of organisation and continuity of all its moving parts, a country works no differently.

For this reason – and this in no way absolves the government – it is unfair to only rake the government over the coals and ignore the wrong within our propensity to self-preserve and self-enrich when it comes to the existence of illegal immigration in our country. Quite honestly, it is unpatriotic to say the least.

We all have our part to play. Even if you are only paying $80 every week to have your yard cleaned, you are still perpetuating the greater issue.

While we will be waiting to see what may become a fight between the government and the business community, the Minnis Administration is still on the hook to deliver.

The grumblings have already begun, and unfortunately for the prime minister, the public will continue to be merciless if there is no material dent in our immigration problem. Perhaps the timing of his eye surgery would have served him as a convenient escape from the press’ questioning on the matter last week. He would have been able to take a week to allow tempers to cool and organise himself going into the second week of the new year.

More than likely we will continue to see stories of apprehensions, deportations and interceptions of sloops en route to our nation’s shores. Perhaps, we will also see stories depicting the alleged “crackdown” that is to come to show that the government means business.

However, the government still must consider the public wants to know a more in-depth plan as to how they are going to deliver the most debilitating blow to illegal immigration that we have ever seen. It is a fine time to do so and entering the first full year of the government’s term in office, it can certainly use an accomplishment to hang its hat on.

As of now, they seem to be going through the motions of governing. It is a new year and the time is ripe for Prime Minister Minnis to show that for all of his shortcomings in wordsmithing, that he is now prepared to be a man of action.

You can be a man of words, or you can be a man that does not hesitate to act. But you can ill afford to be neither.