A U.S. lawmaker is sounding the alarm that President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations could soon expand to people living in the Caribbean. The warning from U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke of New York comes as leaders in the Caribbean community in the U.S. are increasingly debating whether they are safe from the Trump administration.
Clarke, a Democrat who skipped the president’s inauguration to attend the Women’s March on Washington last month, heavily opposes Trump’s 90-day travel ban in part because of the large Muslim population in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands.
“We have to make sure we come together,” said Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants who represents New York’s Ninth District, during a recent emergency meeting Sunday with constituents in New York City.
The congresswoman organized the meeting at the Makki Mosque in Brooklyn in an area known as Little Pakistan, the Jamaica Observer reported. She live streamed the two-hour gathering on her Twitter feed and Periscope with the hashtags: “#BrooklynResists”, “#NoWallNoBan” and “#MuslimBan.” The video features hundreds of attendees standing and sitting, listening to Clarke and other Muslim women speaking in opposition to the president’s executive order. Clarke did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment from International Business Times.
Rumors have spread in recent days within some Caribbean communities in the U.S. that Trump’s orders could eventually include non-immigrants, permanent residents or U.S. citizens of Caribbean descent. A Jamaican civic commentator, Marlon Hill, posted a blog post Monday that advised all Caribbean residents to apply for citizenship immediately if they had not done so.
The Trump administration has not indicated it will expand the travel ban to include other nations.
Meanwhile, many undocumented Caribbean nationals fear the possibility of deportation amid Trump’s promise to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, Joan Pinnock, a member of the Jamaica Diaspora Advisory Board in the U.S., told RJR News.
Malcolm Nance, a MSNBC terrorism analysts, noted during a segment that aired Saturday that Trinidad and Tobago have more terrorists than the seven Muslim-majority countries banned by Trump. Nance said the U.S. has “not banned terrorists from Brazil. ISIS has dozens of members from Brazil or Trinidad or The Bahamas who have more terrorist members than any of those other countries.”
Trinidad’s government dismissed Nance’s claims and added that the U.S. and Trinidad have unified security operations. “Trinidad and Tobago’s unshakable commitment to combating terrorism and religious extremism, in all its forms, cannot be called into question and we will continue to work with our partners in the international community, particularly the United States, our major trading partner, until this threat to world order and security is addressed,” Trinidad’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley said in a statement.