A Look at the Immigration Crisis

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NASSAU , BAHAMAS – Leading up to the election, the Our News team will be taking a deep dive into issues top of mind for voters, how the governing Progressive Liberal Party has dealt with them, and how the opposing Free National Movement and Coalition of Independents plan to tackle them, should you mark your X for them.

Perhaps one of the top factors determining where voters will mark their X is immigration.

Both as a branch of government and as a concerning problem for Bahamians, it has been under the spotlight since the Davis administration first came to office.

You may remember an early Cabinet shuffle that saw former Immigration Minister Keith Bell removed after swearing in a woman and her children as Bahamian citizens at her husband’s funeral back in 2023, the incident sparked protests from both the Free National Movement and Coalition of Independents, giving us this memorable shot of Bell during one of the demonstrations.

The government also sought to rid the country of unregulated communities, better known as shantytowns.

Dozens of communities that once housed thousands of residents, mostly Haitian nationals, some of them undocumented, were destroyed.

Clay Sweeting, Minister, Works and Family Island Affairs

“If I tell you something, it is going to happen, we are not here to play”

Meantime, Bahamian and U.S. authorities have reported a decline in apprehensions at sea.

The latest figures showed only 440 migrants apprehended in 2025, a steep drop from 2,019 in 2024, as interceptions fell sharply across Cuban, Haitian, and mixed-nationality routes tied to the Bahamas–Florida corridor.

Weekly reports of repatriations have come, but there has been no clear breakdown of how many have been repatriated in recent years.

Both the Free National Movement and Coalition of Independents are building part of their campaigns on tackling the issue.

The Free National Movement is especially concerned with the number of fraudulent passport cases.

Michael Pintard, Leader, Free National Movement

“If I tell you something, it is going to happen, we are not here to play”

For Lincoln Bain and the Coalition of Independents, illegal immigration has been one of its founding pillars from the start.

Lincoln Bain, Leader, Coalition of Independents

“If you rent your place to an illegal immigrant, you lock up, if you hire an illegal immigrant, you lock up, you are going to pay a fine initially, after that you may lose your business license”