Trump doesn’t want ‘very bad drug dealers’ from Bahamas in U.S. But DEA data shows the Caribbean plays a small role in the narcotics trade
- President Donald Trump’s concern the United States could open its doors to “very bad drug dealers” by easing immigration rules for the storm-hit Bahamas is undercut by administration data showing the Caribbean plays a small role in the narcotics trade.
“There are an extremely small number of people in the Bahamas involved in the level of criminality Trump was talking about, particularly drug trafficking,” said Charles Katz, an Arizona State University criminology professor who has worked extensively in the Caribbean, including advising nations on how to fight crime.
Trump, who has made restricting illegal and legal immigration a top policy priority, showed little enthusiasm for that idea when asked about it on Monday by reporters. Those concerns belied the fact that the U.S. State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, filed to Congress in March, widely praised the Bahamas for its fight against the drug trade. It said the Bahamas is not a significant drug-producing country but that it remains a significant transshipment point for illicit drugs bound for the United States.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings Institute expert on organized crime and global drug policies, said she thinks it highly unlikely that any cartel figures or members would want to come to the United States. She added that the small domestic market for cocaine in the Bahamas makes it unlikely there would be a significant number of street-level drug dealers who would seek to enter either.
FILE PHOTO: Abaco residents are evacuated from the island at the airport in the wake of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, Bahamas, September 8, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
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