CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES TIPTOE ON THE U.S. TCN TIGHTROPE

It’s the elephant in the room that many are tiptoeing around, but which is creating internal tensions at the expense of keeping the diplomatic pipeline with the United States open.

At issue is the US Third Country Nationals(TCN) deportation scheme for non-nationals in the country deemed to have violated US criminal and immigration laws.

Several Caribbean countries have signed or are negotiating TCN arrangements with the US, allowing them to be used as transit points or ultimate destinations for those persons.

The TCN agreements differ by country, but it’s known that specific groups of TCNs, which vary in number from country to country, are transferred from the US to the host country. There’s also the option of seeking refugee status or other permission to remain in those countries in situations where they cannot return to their home countries.

This is happening at a time when the Trump administration is reviewing its visa policies with many countries, among them some in the Caribbean.

According to foreign policy experts familiar with the situation, many countries are forced to tread a diplomatic tightrope very carefully - and cautiously - as other issues come into the negotiating framework.

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

The Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has expressed the view that there’s a link between the TCN issue and visa restrictions imposed on his country by the US.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the restriction that was issued on Antigua as of the end of last year, effective January of this year, was as a result of this issue,” Mr Browne said while confirming that channels have been open for talks with the Trump administration on the matter. The Antigua and Barbuda leader said they are limiting any intake to a maximum of 10 persons per group, although it was not clear how many groups per period this might apply to.

Specific conditions are being negotiated over what types of persons are accepted based on the reasons for their deportation from the US.

“We’re fighting to ensure that they do not send any criminal elements here,” Mr Browne insisted while leaving the door open that some could be integrated…We are not in a position to say that we can’t take any, but the moral high ground we can take is on the issue of criminality, or if they are extremely ill.” He stated that the only exception he would make on criminality is if the individual had committed an immigration violation in the US.

Mr Browne likened the TCN issue with the US to “a man holding a gun to our heads and saying here’s some poison, drink it.” In that case, he said, “I’d rather die of a homicide than of a suicide.”

The Antigua and Barbuda leader has also said that remarks referring to LGBTQIA TCN deportees not being welcome in his country were made in jest and have been taken out of context.

JAMAICA

The matter is also trending in Jamaica, which has signed a TCN arrangement with the US.

Confirmation came from the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. Horace Chang, who disclosed that the agreement is for 25 persons per group. “At no time will the number exceed 25, because we have the right to refuse anyone at any time, and both parties can terminate the entire agreement without any long-term notice.”

How that information entered the public discourse is also the subject of debate, with the government accused of withholding information from the public until it was leaked.

The definition of criminal under the TCN system is also playing out in the Jamaica/US arrangement, where Jamaica has also insisted that it will not accept criminal deportees.

“To consider that I would bring criminals into Jamaica, from anywhere, of any kind, after we have done all we have done to reduce crime and violence, it is ridiculous,” Dr Chang stated in the Jamaica parliament.

The matter has also sparked controversy in St Kitts and Nevis, which has agreed to the US TCN request but has insisted that Haitian deportees are excluded from being sent to the twin-island Eastern Caribbean nation.

Over 30 countries have concluded TCN agreements with the US, including several in the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia.