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The Bahamian government confirmed on Thursday that it had rejected an overture from the Trump administration-in-waiting, slated to begin its term, to host deported migrants. This development highlights the challenges facing Trump as he seeks to enact sweeping immigration cuts promised on the campaign trail.
According to NBC News, Donald Trump’s team has compiled a roster of countries they plan to use as alternatives for deporting migrants whose home nations refuse to accept their return. The move signals a controversial step in Trump’s immigration strategy.
The Bahamas, an idyllic island nation nestled in the Atlantic, responded to the proposal with a firm “no,” stating it had “carefully assessed and outright rejected” the idea, distancing itself from the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
The Trump transition team suggested that the Bahamas become a hub for deportation flights carrying migrants from other nations, according to a statement from Prime Minister Philip Davis’s office—a proposal that was met with firm resistance.
“Since the Prime Minister’s rejection of this proposal, there has been no further engagement or discussions with the Trump transition team,” the statement added.
The Eastern Updates has learned that other nations being considered for Trump’s deportation plan include Turks and Caicos, Panama, and Grenada, highlighting the administration’s broad search for cooperative partners.
The president-elect based his successful White House run on vicious anti-migrant rhetoric, blaming migrants for a supposed national crime wave and promising to carry out mass deportations.
Read also: Donald Trump Kick-Starts Moves To End Ukraine, Russian War
Trump’s team made no immediate comment Thursday on the Bahamas’ rejection, which appeared to reveal one part of how he plans to enact radical migration reform when in office.
The deportation plan could mean that migrants are permanently displaced in countries to which they have no links.
It is not clear if the migrants would be allowed to work — or what pressure Trump may apply to get countries to agree.
The US government has struggled for years to manage its southern border with Mexico, and Trump on the campaign trail targeted concerns by claiming an “invasion” is underway by migrants he says will rape and murder Americans.
At rallies, he repeatedly railed against undocumented immigrants, attacking those who “poison the blood” of the United States.
He has vowed to tackle migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — which allows the federal government to round up and deport foreigners belonging to enemy countries.
Trump also promoted the fictitious story that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets.
The incoming president last month said he was bringing back hardline immigration official Tom Homan to oversee the country’s borders.
Homan led immigration enforcement during part of Trump’s first administration. A British plan to deport its asylum seekers to Rwanda was dropped earlier this year when the Labour Party took power under Keir Starmer after ousting the Conservatives.
