It's been over a week since the US voted to make Donald Trump their 47th president. While Belize has sent its congratulations, should the country be looking out for an influx of deportees? Trump ran on an anti-immigration campaign and promised mass deportations. And, as we all know, many thousands of Belizeans are living in the US, many of them illegally, other claiming asylum.
The PM says it's not a problem if they are deported, and that Belize will continue to work with President Trump.
But will Trump appoint another ambassador, or will we go back to having only charge d'affaires, like during his previous term?
We asked the PM.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"As you know, the United States is our biggest partner, most important partner, we have always worked very closely with them. I don't foresee any major changes for us as well, short of the MCC compact that has just been signed, we believe that we're going to continue to strengthen the relationship between both countries."
Reporter:
"What's your thoughts on his mass deportation policy? Trouble for Belizeans?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Absolutely not, we need workers. So if they bring back Belizeans to Belize, we need workers. But again, the American people, in their wisdom, decided to vote for a man that said he's going to do mass deportations. We may not agree with the voters but we have to respect the wishes of the voters."
"All American ambassadors are going to resign on the day he takes over or the day before, something to that effect, and then he then decides if he's going to keep any or not. There are a number of career diplomats that are ambassadors, those would stay. if they don't stay as Ambassadors, they will go back to work for the State Department and then they will appoint new ambassadors. Certainly for Belize, it's not a career diplomat. Obviously quite likely Mr Trump will pick somebody else. But back then it's not like Mr Trump was not interested it's that he was having a lot of problems in congress and couldn't get a lot of his nominations approved. And so he had to leave a charge. I think it was the first year of the Biden presidency, they had a charge here, two charges, which they did a pretty good job, they're professionals. So I do expect and hope he would an ambassador for Belize. Belize is a nice appointment, you could ask all the ambassadors, they all fall in love with Belize, the beauty of the country, and just as important or even more important, the people. We are warm people, we are friendly people, we are happy people and they love being in Belize."
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