Havana, Cuba.-Expecting the international impact of the unpredictable policies by the new U.S. government, the members of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) are tuning up the stances that they will debate here at the 12th Meeting of their Ministerial Council on March 8.

Although the main topics on the official agenda of next week’s meeting are the effects of climate change and regional interconnection, among others, the world’s concerned about the first measures taken by U.S. President Donald Trump will not be absent from the debates, at least in private.

For the Caribbean countries, one of the biggest threats in this regard is the increase in the number of deportations announced by the White House, as it may have a huge negative impact on the region’s economies.

In the case of Jamaica alone, the number of citizens who reside illegally in the United States ranges between 65,000 and 67,000, whose remittances are among the main income sources in hard currency, according to statistics from the Migration Policies Institute published in Kingston.

After taking office on January 20, Trump ordered the construction of a big wall on the border with Mexico and signed an executive order to prevent the arrival of refugees and citizens from seven countries of Muslim majority (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya).

The latter measure was vetoed by Judge James Robart, from the western state of Washington, and later by the Appeal Court of the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California.

Last week, the U.S. National Security Agency announced a plan to reinforce immigration laws to allow hiring 15,000 new immigration officers.

That scheme also underlines that undocumented immigrants will be charged with violent crimes, as well as those who have abused of public benefits or that ‘according to an immigration officer, may put public security and national security at risk’.

Ten days ago, the 18th Summit of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), held in Georgetown, analyzed the regional situation ‘in the light of the political events in the United States’ and their impact on the countries of the region.

In that regard, the heads of State and of Government highlighted ‘the strong family ties among the peoples of the Community and the United States of America’, and called to continue ‘the fruitful and mutually-beneficial relation with the new U.S. administration.’

Another matter of concern for the Caribbean is Trump’s drastic change in the U.S. environmental policy, a key issue for a region threatened by the increase in the sea level due to climate change, a matter that will be debated at the ACS Ministerial Meeting in Havana.