Knock, Knock, Knocking on America's Door

August 3, was the date on which the United States government effectively closed its doors on most Antiguans and Barbudans, rendering us personae non gratae and relegating our passport to just “a piece of government-issued ID.” 

The first time I stood on American soil was 60 years ago, as a five-year-old with a “permit” to travel and a band-aid on my arm covering my brand-new vaccination.  St. Thomas, USVI, was my family’s vacation spot; but for hundreds of others the Virgin Islands were the door to opportunities they were not allowed at home.  

That access also enabled them to get into the mainland, “through the window,” as was said back then. Once there, the vast majority made good for themselves and their families by working hard and saving harder.   And when they finally “got straight,” they would dutifully “send for” the children they’d left in the care of their families and then “file for” parents and siblings to complete the circle.

The first of my relatives to move North went in 1914.  I would follow 70 years later – to study and work, to live and love, and to grow and enjoy the most enlightening period of my life…. It's hard for me to accept that, with the new condition of a $54,000 bond, very few of our young people – full of ambition, intelligence, and talent though they might be – will get the experience they deserve. 

I grieve for them. And when the Carnival is over and reality hits, I believe they will grieve for themselves, too. More than grief, though, I hope they will be angry. I hope they will feel robbed. I hope this will bu’n dem.  And I hope they will sit soberly and ask themselves why this happened. 

You see, I’m hearing and reading commentary that portrays Antigua and Barbuda as a victim.  That says there was no rhyme or reason for America to be so vindictive to us, given our low rate of overstaying; our modest anchor-baby percentage; and our negligible claim on social services.  Then, clearly, there must be another reason; not so?

Others are linking our new “permanent bond” status to Antigua and Barbuda’s rejection of the third-country-deportees the United States wants to foist upon us. But weren’t we in America’s bad books even before this matter came up? 

Matter of fact, we were in our friend Canada’s bad books nearly a decade before the US Government slammed the door on the prime minister’s fingers. And the reason given was what?  Our Citizenship by Investment Programme and the slack way in which it was operated.  And what was the response by our authorities?  A shrug, because “how many of us going Canada regularly, anyway?”

(Now, not even our good-up friend China will allow us into that country without a visa. But, never mind: Shein will ship directly here for US$35 per order.)

We need to stop the partisan hypocrisy and admit that this Administration tripped itself – and us – up, and we have all the negative stories to prove it: from Dark Web trader Alexandre Cazes who committed suicide in a Thailand prison cell to Xiao Jinhua, the WIOC shareholder who is alive in a Chinese jail, to accused money-launder Alex Saab Moran, and a number of others, including Russians and Belarussians in between.  All these people held our passports and were counted as citizens of Antigua and Barbuda.  

Before that, in 2015, we heard an American politician say that we were on America’s radar for granting visa waivers to young Syrians who were then smuggled from Antigua into the US Virgin Islands.  After that, over 900 West Africans were brought here on the pretense – the naked lie – of their being wealthy investors, on four flights – three of which “duped” the Browne Administration by its own admission.  And, apart from those who drowned on one of the smuggling trips, where did these persons end up?

How many of you bawled out the Administration when these things happened? How many of you supported the Opposition’s calls for commissions of inquiry?  How many of you thought that America was not taking note?

“For want of a nail, a kingdom was lost.”

What our young people – and the other folks who might need to see a specialist or to complete a medical internship; to visit their children or to see a grandchild graduate; or to attend a professional conference or a church convocation – need to ask is what changed between June 2025 and now. The prime minister assured his believers, then, that what has now happened “will never happen.”  So what happened? 

Haven’t he and his skilled and competent negotiators been writing letters and having talks with the US authorities since we were put on the visa ban and bond list in January?  And weren’t we expecting a lift of the ban, after a review of our stepped-up CIP measures, on July 1? And didn’t he say, just weeks ago – before the unsigned MoU was even taken to Parliament – that the third-country-deportees are, in fact, going to come?  So how could that now be considered the sticking point that has earned us a permanent US$20k bond … just to apply?

What has happened to wipe the smug grin of June 20, 2025, off the prime minister’s face? What has made him go from allegedly telling US Navy Admiral Alvin Halsey “not now, not ever” – in reference to the United States using this country in its war on Venezuela – to a unilateral decision to accept America’s rejects?  What are we not being told? 

I hear some of the apologists saying, “Oh, it’s not us alone!”  Well, St. Kitts, like us, has a passport programme and, like us, has agreed to accept the deportees. But St. Kitts was not named on the Permanent Visa Bond list, was it?  So, ah whah arwe do?

Why is JetBlue dropping us at the start of the 2026-27 tourist season but continuing with St. Kitts? Why didn’t the aviation minister alert the red caps, the taxi drivers, the hotel and tour operators, and the thousands whose mortgages, utilities, groceries, and school fees depend on the US dollar?

And what’s next from the USA: a Travel Advisory on this little country in which the CIP has built not one government office, highway, or manufacturing plant to date?

… As Carnival makes its way off the Government’s shiny new stage, we need to ask some questions and demand answers.  We need to know – apart from trying to make US President Donald Trump into his pen pal – how the prime minister plans to mitigate the obvious challenges arising out of this visa bond.  

With the European Union demanding the shutdown of the CIP, how does the finance minister plan to replace the lost income … other than by new taxes and old-tax hikes? Will there be a replacement for JetBlue by October 31; and if not, why not?

Without the CIP to do all it was not designed to do – like prop up Social Security – will the Government be able to pay pensioners the little money we depend on?  Will APUA be able to complete its water pipe-laying project and correct whatever it is that is causing the electricity fluctuations and blackouts?  

Will the Government even qualify for that $100 million loan to complete All Saints Road; to stop the torture on Potters, Herberts, Jonas, Marble Hill, Buckleys, and Baylight Roads; and to stop imperiling the residents of St. Peter on the death trap called the (original) Old Parham Road?

Without the CIP revenues and if a Travel Advisory is slapped on us, will Public Works employees be paid on the regular; CSEC exams and UWI tuition still be covered; and centenarians continue to receive their $10,000 reward for having endured all the ills listed above for so long?

Meanwhile, as we wait for answers from those who now hold diplomatic visas, those of you with the ordinary pass into the USA need to check your email to ensure it has not been revoked.  And those who had hopes and dreams of being there for Labour Day or Thanksgiving, remember the Embassy doesn’t accept land certificates or promissory notes.

As someone somewhere once said to me, famously: “It’s [$54,000] cash and not a dollar less!”