Trump's 'very bad' Bahamian drug dealers? U.S. data shows little
evidence
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[September 11, 2019]
By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) - 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.
The era of the 1980s "Cocaine Cowboys," who used speedboats to ferry
vast amounts of that drug into South Florida from the Caribbean, has
long since passed in large part because of the cooperation between the
United States and nations including the Bahamas.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's most recent assessment of drug
trafficking mentions the Bahamas only once in its more than 150 pages,
and indeed raises concerns about more potent marijuana flowing from the
continental United States to the Caribbean.
"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.
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Hurricane Dorian pummeled the Bahamas with 200-mile-per-hour
(320-km-per-hour) winds last week, killing at least 50 people and
causing immense destruction among the Abacos islands.
Several Bahamians who lost their jobs or homes to the storm said they
were considering moving to the United States temporarily to find work. A
bipartisan group of lawmakers including U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and
Rick Scott of Florida, members of Trump's Republican Party, called on
the White House to temporarily relax visa requirements.
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.
"Bahamas has some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas
that weren't supposed to be there," Trump told reporters. "I don't want
to allow people that weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into
the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang
members and some very, very bad drug dealers."
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.
"During 2018, there was a notable increase in communication,
effectiveness, and cooperation between Bahamian law enforcement agencies
and the United States," the report read. "Demand for cocaine within the
country remains low."
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![](../images/091119PIX/news_u37.jpg)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House before
departing to Fayetteville, North Carolina in Washington, U.S.
September 9, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott/File Photo
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'CREATING A BOGEYMAN'
The DEA's 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment mentioned the Bahamas
just once, in an anecdote about a drug-carrying ship that was
intercepted. That report says that most cocaine, heroin and
marijuana entering the United States comes through Mexico and
Central America. Only 7 percent came through the Caribbean in 2017.
In fact, the DEA report stated, there has been an increased drug
flow from the continental U.S. to the Caribbean region, as
"marijuana users on the U.S. Virgin Islands desire more THC, the
active ingredient in cannabis, in their marijuana and are obtaining
it from areas in the U.S. where the use of medical marijuana is
legal."
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.
"This is all very much Trump creating a bogeyman, which he applies
to whatever country he does not want to accept nonwhite immigrants
from," she said. "The priority needs to be on those hurting right
now."
But Todd Bensman a Texas-based senior national security fellow at
the Center for Immigration Studies - a hard-line group that pushes
for restricting immigration - said that he read Trump's statements
as less a concern that cartels will use the opportunity provided by
Dorian to plant their foot soldiers on U.S. soil than valid worries
about properly vetting those who would be allowed into the country.
Just as Dorian destroyed people's homes and took away their
livelihoods, it has likely interfered with the operations of drug
dealers working in the Bahamas, said Ivelaw Griffith, an expert on
Caribbean security, drugs and crime with the Washington-based Center
for Strategic and International Studies.
Drug dealers are unlikely to want to face the scrutiny that involves
navigating an increased number of search and rescue authorities in
the area, Griffith said, adding, they "will provide the kind of
exposure to law enforcement that is not conducive to trafficking."
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(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; additional reporting by
Andy Sullivan in Washington; editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan
Oatis)
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