Choices Deportee Aims to Make America’s Loss Jamaica’s Gain Alvin McLean at the headquarters of the Family Unification & Resettlement Initiative A nonprofit in Jamaica is helping a growing network of deportees from the U.S. find a foothold in their country of origin.
Choices Deportee Aims to Make America’s Loss Jamaica’s Gain Alvin McLean at the headquarters of the Family Unification & Resettlement Initiative A nonprofit in Jamaica is helping a growing network of deportees from the U.S. find a foothold in their country of origin. Listen · 9:06 min Share full article Visuals by Gabriella Angotti-JonesBy Lisa Armstrong NYT Oct. 17, 2026 Alvin McLean has been passing his two phones around since noon. He walks through rows of people seated under a tarp on the tarmac of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, helping them place more than 200 calls to parents, cousins, ex-girlfriends. By the time he leaves the airport at 4:30 p.m., there are still about 10 men standing outside, some dressed in the light gray sweatsuits issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. For these men, many of whom have not been back in Jamaica in several decades, this phone call is their last chance to find someone, anyone, to come and ...
