When he negotiates on his knees

So here we are, a mere two days away from “V-Day,” July 1, 2026, when Antiguans and Barbudans are supposed to have our eligibility to apply for US visas reviewed. Note I said “to apply” and not “to receive.”

Like many fellow nationals – residency  trumps nationality  in this instance – I have a strong feeling that the US State Department is going to lift the ban and the bond and, at least on paper, we’ll go back to what once was.

However, I personally believe that lifting the knee off our necks will be not so much a matter of diplomatic negotiations – but one of capitulation to America’s Third-Country Deportees deal. And despite all the prime minister’s fat chat, we will get who and what America decides we will get!

He will raise his arms in both victory and surrender and pretend he gave it his best shot in the interest of getting his people back into the United States.  But as the cut-off number crept from 10 to 14 to 16 accepted deportees, it was clear to us that the prime minister’s show of resistance was mere theatre. 

You see, not for one moment am I deceived that he was fighting for us. How could he when he was already on his knees – never a good negotiating position unless you’re in a certain profession. 

I mean he was already in the US’ bad books for the reckless operation of the CIP;  his relationship with bad boy Alex Saab Moran and, possibly, former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, himself; his symbiotic relationship with Allen Onyema and Air Peace; his court matter involving the controversial sale of the Alfa Nero; and – now – a St. Kitts-based scandal that could involve millions of US dollars laundered through our banking system… .

You remember, in April, right after a gunman stormed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents Dinner, that the prime minister wrote a fawning letter to the US President? Well, that was when the personal kowtowing – the shucking and jiving – became evident. 

The prime minister ingratiating himself with the real powerhouse – economic and legal – is not about Granny getting to Atlanta for Junior’s graduation or Daddy flying up to New York for that surgery on his back. No. No. Don’t be deceived, People.  It was about keeping Junior out of the Discovery loop and getting the State Department off his Daddy’s back.

So if you have to accept 16 deportees about whom we know nothing – other than how US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described them, as perverts, pedophiles and child rapists – and the prime minister and his associates get to breathe a little easier, I guess you could call yourselves good citizens and feel satisfied. 

Now, in addition to having studied government and politics, I am a realist; and I recognize that when a country’s testicles are in a vise, it has to be careful how it extricates them. But that is no excuse at all for keeping its people in the dark about what could be a life-changing move.

Up to now, not even the Parliament has been informed on how these third-country deportees will be supported; where they will be housed; whether their residence here will be permanent.  No public consultation has been held for locals to ask questions or air their concerns.

Suppose any or all of these deportees are, in fact, sex offenders.  Whereas US law-enforcement compiles and maintains registries to protect its public from such criminals, what do we have here?  Here where, even if an offender is caught in the act, the Police will tell the person reporting the crime that they “don’t have any available vehicles right now….”

So, what do we, the reluctant hosts of these unwelcome deportees, get out of this arrangement – other than the privilege of applying for a US visa? After all the prime minister’s vaunted negotiations and decisions made of gristle, what tangible benefit will redound to this country for accepting the United States’ undesirables?

Will, say, the US Army Corps of Engineers be deployed here to repair the Potters/Herberts Main Road and make it fit for renaming? Better yet, since it’s a longer stretch, how about Jonas Road into the Tyrells stretch to English Harbour?

Will the hospital be gifted with new, modern diagnostic equipment so that the cost of healthcare for the working poor and the uninsured  will go down?  Or will we get a new wing at Clarevue dedicated to the rehabilitation of the growing number of weed addicts? What about some help with our water situation in this punishing drought?

I mean something, Jack, anything to persuade us, the unfortunate victims of this Administration’s bad decisions, that we’re getting something good out of this deal.  Because if the only thing we get is permission to apply for a visa to enter a country where folks like us are already being put out – then it appears to me that only the kneeling man has won.