GIFF JOHNSON
The Trump administration’s aggressive action to deport illegal aliens is reverberating around the Pacific, with commentators from Papua New Guinea to Fiji to Tonga to Samoa warning that the arrival of dozens, possibly hundreds, of islanders deported from the US is likely to result in big negative consequences for these small islands.
“Quite soon…a United States military aircraft will be landing at Tonga’s Fua’amotu Airport to offload dozens of Tongan citizens rounded up for being in the US without the proper documentation,” wrote New Zealand journalist Michael Field last week in a post on the Facebook page, The Pacific Newsroom. “Like other Pacific states including Fiji and Sāmoa, an unsettling number of them will have gang and criminal connections. In the case of Tonga, the 2006 destruction of Nuku’alofa, shows the consequences.”
The Post-Courier newspaper in Papua New Guinea, which reports just five PNG citizens on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation list, published a page one story with a photo to Trump pointing next to the headline, “Get Out.”
Over 150 Tongans could be deported shortly and over 50 Samoans.
Not to be left out, the Marshall Islands may be positioned squarely between Samoa and Tonga when it comes to the number of Marshallese facing deportation this year due to Trump’s mandate to ICE to get undocumented aliens — which could possibly include Marshallese with expired passports — and those with criminal records, no matter how many years in the past.
In 2024, an all-time record number of Marshallese were deported from America — over double the 2023 number. ICE reports that 67 Marshallese were deported during the Biden administration in fiscal year 2024, breaking all previous annual records. This compares to pre-Covid 2019 when 32 were deported and 2023 when 28 were deported. Since 2019, 143 Marshallese have been deported and the number would be significantly higher except for the Covid border closure in 2020-2022 that resulted in no deportations to RMI in 2021 and 2022.
Despite the record-breaking number of deportations last year, Cabinet has not yet endorsed a standard operating policy to guide government responses to the increasing pace of Marshallese being deported. Deportation Task Force Chair Ebon Nitijela Member Marie Davis Milne said the task force completed the draft SOP for Cabinet review and approval “months ago.”
With the Trump administration push for deportations, including ICE-led door-to-door searches over recent weeks in Northwest Arkansas in neighborhoods where Marshallese live, the 2024 record number could be left in the dust by 2025 deportations.
The combination of ICE and Springdale law enforcement officers operations in NW Arkansas put Marshallese on edge, with community groups springing into action to provide advice about how to respond to ICE officers on your doorstep. It also led Marshallese advocate Albious Later to caution Marshallese about moving to the Springdale area. “We used to recommend NWA as one of the safest places to raise a family,” he said in a social media post. “However, nowadays, we advise those with a past criminal record not to move to NWA due to these risks.”
Amid Trump’s immigration crackdown across the country, Hawaii law enforcement teams have been hitting locations across Oahu daily, targeting those with criminal records, reported Hawaii News Now late last week.
Other Pacific nations such as Tonga, the Federated States of Micronesia, and New Zealand are also significantly represented, with 151 Tongans, 72 Micronesians, and 166 New Zealanders facing final orders of removal from the US, reported the Samoa Observer. Other countries like Australia (261 individuals), Palau (eight), and the Solomon Islands (three) also have citizens who may be impacted by the deportation push.
“While some US officials emphasize the need for stringent immigration control to protect national security and uphold the rule of law, others warn that the repercussions of mass deportations could be devastating for those affected and for US-Pacific Island relations,” the Samoa newspaper said.
RMI Foreign Minister Kalani Kaneko told the Journal that he and RMI ambassadors are reaching out to leaders in the new Trump administration to create greater awareness about Marshallese immigration status.
The RMI Washington Embassy also issued a letter addressed to “ICE” with a one-paragraph explanation of Marshallese legal status in the US under US law.
“In addition to the letter addressed to ICE, my office will keep sending congratulatory letters to the confirmed members of Trump’s Cabinet,” said Kaneko. “The purpose of these letters is to highlight our Compact agreement, acknowledge our sacrifices, and request meetings either in person or virtually.”
A similar letter is to be sent to the new Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “with the same objective,” he said.