Curtis Ward | Project 2025 is greatest threat yet

Early voting in the US elections is well under way in many states, but the majority of Americans will vote on November 5. Many critical issues are on the ballot, but democracy is paramount for the future of America and for liberal democracies around the world.

The threat to democracy is a threat to the underlying guarantees of rights and freedoms – for the rule of law and the freedoms we take for granted such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association and dissent. Fundamental to these threats, and in addition, are the threats to the immigrant and diaspora communities.

This election provides a stark contrast between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and between the Republican and Democratic parties. The threats posed by a future Trump administration is ominous. A large cadre of Trump’s supporters and former members of his administration have collaborated with the leading conservative think-tank in Washington, DC, The Heritage Foundation, and produced Project 2025, a blueprint for the next Trump administration to transform America to autocracy. American citizens, particularly immigrants of colour and countries over which a second Trump administration would cast an ominous geopolitical, economic, and security threat, Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean included, must be concerned – very concerned.

Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise, is a 922-page document, the entirety of which very few people will ever read. Those highlighting sections of this epistle will concentrate their reporting and analyses of those sections directly impacting the American system of government, and to some extent, the immigrant community. Most will settle for the echo chamber alarm over the implications of Project 2025 for America’s future as a democracy. It is important to concentrate on some specific impacts on immigrants of colour and the Caribbean region should Trump be re-elected president.

The foreword explains the intent of the conservative promise plain and simple, stating, “Its 30 chapters lay out hundreds of clear and concrete policy recommendations for White House offices, Cabinet departments, Congress, and agencies, commissions, and boards.” This 922-page document provides a detailed blueprint for achieving its objectives. If implemented, these ultra-conservative ideas for a new American society will transform governance and citizens’ rights, and the country’s global engagement will threaten international security and stability for decades. If implemented, a great deal of the damage will be irreversible.

Aspects of this voluminous document, with specific impact on the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora communities in the US, and on the Caribbean region, are worth highlighting. This is by no means ignoring the overall deleterious impact on American society, which includes the entire diaspora, should Trump be given a second stint as president. All related issues cannot be articulated in one or two analyses or commentaries.

According to Project 2025, transformational changes will follow “along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future”. While all four objectives offer frightening future prospects for America and its role in the world, I am particularly interested in Promise 3: Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.

IMPACT ON IMMIGRANTS AND DIASPORA

Trump and his running-mate have repeated egregious lies about immigrants to underpinning future anti-immigrant policies. Among their most egregious lies targeted Haitian immigrants, but their repeated lies do not disguise their hate for all immigrants of colour. The policy, “Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border, repair the historic damage done by the Biden Administration, return to a lawful and orderly immigration system, and protect the homeland from terrorism and public-safety threats.”

Trump has made clear his intention to implement this policy, including by rounding up tens of millions of so-called “illegal” immigrants, putting them in detention camps and engaging in mass deportation. They will not be accorded access to due process of law. Families will be summarily ripped apart, and American-born citizen babies and children will be torn from their “illegal” immigrant parents. Citizen spouses will lose their partners. Many legal immigrants, including Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals, will be caught up in this dragnet.

Referencing the United Nations, international organisations, and treaties, Project 2025 takes aim at “International organizations and agreements that erode our Constitution, rule of law, or popular sovereignty should not be reformed: They should be abandoned. Illegal immigration should be ended not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritised.”

Sealing the border includes ending facilitation of temporary workers, including an end to discretionary authority to increase H2B ( seasonal non-agricultural workers). The current family-based immigration system will be replaced with a merit-based system. Family unification immigration, which has served Caribbean immigrants since 1965, will no longer exist. A merit-based immigration system will end “chain migration while focusing on the nuclear family, and the existing employment visa program should be replaced with a system to award visas only to the best and brightest’”. Brain drain on steroids! And there will be significant increases in already high immigration fees.

IMPLICATIONS FOR JAMAICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Project 2025 provides for a complete revamp of the structure and role of the US State Department and the USAID. Soft-power diplomacy and foreign-assistance programmes will be transformed into tools for implementing coercive measures. There will be no diplomatic persuasion or compromise. Countries that fail to comply with US interests without deviation will be punished.

Jamaica and other Caribbean countries should be particularly concerned with recommendation on China-US relations. It states specifically that “economic engagement with China should be ended, not rethought“. One of the objectives of this policy is to curb China’s engagement in the hemisphere. At the least, the policy aims at ending China’s economic footprint in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The foreign and economic implications of Project 2025 require a great deal of space for further elaboration. But it’ is important to add the recommendation to remove all restrictions on acquisition of guns. Already, with limited constraints, the prospect for controlling illicit arms trafficking to Jamaica and the Caribbean will be nullified.

Curtis Ward is former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations, with special responsibility for security council affairs. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.