‘Never thought I would have to live like this’ Jamaican afraid to leave home amid US immigration crackdowns

A Jamaican woman, Patsy*, who uprooted her life and moved to the United States in search of a better future, says she is now living in fear of deportation, despite being married and having an immigration filing in progress.

Patsy left Jamaica for the US a few years ago, hoping to find greener pastures.

“After COVID, I realised that I just wasn’t earning enough. I was barely surviving and, after my mother died, I had bills and my bank account was dry. I just felt like I had nothing to lose, so I left,” she said.

She moved between several states, staying with friends as she tried to get on her feet before landing a job at a department store, where she is now a supervisor.

“Mi go with a goal: The first year was really about working and saving. I had a plan to get myself sort out same time, because mi know how it rough when you nuh straight a foreign.”

But the life she worked so hard to build has been overshadowed by fears about her immigration status.

“Over yah a nuh nice place fi deh right now. When you hear people a talk how scary it is, a nuh joke. Nuff Jamaicans used to work a the same place me work and now a less and less a we every day. People nuh want come work because dem nuh want get ketch.”

The Trump administration has intensified its immigration crackdown, with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanding deportation operations and tightening enforcement while also making some forms of legal immigration more difficult. The measures have fuelled fear among immigrant communities and drawn criticism from rights groups over due-process concerns, while the administration says the policies are aimed at strengthening border and national security.

Patsy said her job has become a kind of refuge because she spends much of her time there and avoids going out unless absolutely necessary.

“Mi think the shift weh mi work pon a my saving grace, because nuff day mi deh home and hear seh ICE raid happen. Mi nuh go pon the road unless mi have to. I stay off social media and I get everything I need inna the same area weh mi work,” she said.

But, about two weeks ago, her worst fears appeared to become reality when she was detained by ICE.

“As mi step off the bus and start walk fi turn pon the road to mi apartment, a them mi see. It’s like mi freeze. Mi nuh bother run nor nothing. To me, it look like them know who dem did a come for.”

She said her first thought was that she was about to be deported.

“In my head, mi a say ‘a it this, mi a guh get deported because them nuh care, especially if dem look and see seh you visa expire and you deh here pon it’.”

She said she was taken into detention and questioned for two and a half days.

“Mi never have no documents, nothing pon me. Them just ask me and mi tell them when mi come, when mi get married and when the filing start. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, so mi just, tell them everything,” she said.

With her husband away on deployment, she said she feared nobody would know what had happened to her.

“Mi a fret the whole time because I didn’t know what was going to happen. At that point, all deh pon my mind is dem a go put me pon the next flight to Jamaica.”