Gordon Robinson | On our knees again

So, as a result of Government’s habitual strategy of negotiating with USA while on its knees, we’ve agreed to become USA’s deportee dumpster.

On June 16, Gleaner broke the story of a previously secret Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) allegedly initially proposed by a former Ambassador to accept non-Jamaican deportees from USA. Gleaner reported:

“A document from the US Embassy in Kingston….outlines the operational framework for the proposed Third-Country Nationals (TCN) agreement, which has triggered controversy in several countries that have entered into similar arrangements with Washington…

Under the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU), the US would transfer up to 25 foreign nationals every two weeks to Jamaica for an unspecified period.”

Government started scrambling like Patrick Mahomes with a bum knee and a banged up offensive line. Horace Chang immediately issued a lengthy statement that included:

“….the individuals who may be transferred under this framework are not being brought to Jamaica as permanent migrants. These are nationals of other countries other than Jamaica [anxiety creating too many “other”s?] who are being facilitated through a structured process to transit through Jamaica to a third territory, including return to their home countries.”

INCLUDING? What other “third territory” is contemplated? Is this a hop scotch game where we facilitate deportation from USA to Jamaica to arbitrary anywhere?

Horace: “Jamaica is not opening its borders for an uncontrolled migration programme.”

If the deportees aren’t migrants, what are they? Is it that Jamaica is opening its borders for a CONTROLLED migration programme?

At a June 17 post-cabinet briefing Chang categorically denied Jamaica had agreed to accept any non-Jamaican deportees:

“We have no agreement, no understanding to accept deportees from the United States – except Jamaicans”

On June 18, PM Holness posted on Tweeter “Minister of National Security, Horace Chang, has…..emphasized there is no agreement, arrangement, or ongoing discussion for Jamaica to receive foreign convicts, illegal immigrants, or deportees from the US.”

Not migrants. Not deportees. Not illegal immigrants. Not convicts. WHAT. ARE. THEY? Obviously USA doesn’t want them. There’s some reason why they can’t head straight to their home countries. What’s going on?

According to Caribbean News Global, “Dr Chang said….that persons who choose to stay in Jamaica (my emphasis) will have to apply to the courts for asylum. ‘If they get asylum status, we retain them, if they don’t, we send them home.’”

So they CAN become permanent migrants! Or we “send them home”. Where? If “home” was accepting them they wouldn’t be here.

Government’s concurrent anxiety was to refute reports it was an Audrey Marks proposal. Gleaner quoted a USA Embassy diplomatic note which stated Marks made the proposal “for a Third-Country-National arrangement that would have Jamaica receive up to 10,000 third-country nationals from United States”.

First Dana Dixon then Audrey Marks denied Marks’ proposal was connected to the MOU. Dana said Marks proposed, in March 2025, that skilled workers be acquired from USA and this has somehow been “conflated” with the Deportee Dumpster MOU. But, in an interview with Gio Dennis (now JIS CEO) Marks said her proposal was triggered by USA’s mass deportation policy from which she wanted Jamaica to “benefit”. She told Gio “8.5 million undocumented migrants in USA are highly skilled. We’ve lost over 1.5 million Jamaicans to migration.”

The only rational conclusion from Marks’ interview is the Embassy’s note was accurate. Marks’ proposal was intended to help with America’s mass deportation of “undocumented migrants” in a way beneficial to Jamaica. It seems her diplomatic skills weren’t as good as the Americans’ and her somewhat naïve proposal converted Jamaica into USA’s Deportee Dumpster.

If not, what happened to Marks’ “skilled workers” proposal? How’s it coming along?

Horace Chang’s June 16 press release emphatically declared:

“This is an MOU and not a binding agreement and does not come into effect until the completion of agreed pre-implementation requirements, including the finalisation of operational guidelines and procedures.”

But he also wrote “This MOU is the outcome of negotiations between two sovereign partners….. Jamaica’s technical teams engaged in detailed discussions with their United States counterparts to ensure the framework included the necessary safeguards and protections for Jamaica.”

Reminds me of a classic by Blues legend Louis Jordan:

Is you is or is you ain’t my baby?

The way you’e actin’ lately makes me doubt.

Horace, is it or is it not an agreement? Why’d we need “detailed” negotiations by “technical teams” to arrive at a non-binding expression of friendship? An MOU is usually a general declaration of intent to be followed by “detailed negotiations” between “technical teams”.

Did you really get it assy versy? Seriously?

On June 17 Horace was able to disclose several details of this “non-binding MOU”. He itemised that 25 persons would be sent every two weeks; USA pays for all associated costs; no criminals; prior health screenings, identity checks, and approval from National Intelligence Bureau before landing; Jamaica can reject any individual; both parties can cancel at any time.

Wow. Sounds pretty agreementish to me. And very binding!

Horace, don’t write and speak ad nauseam about the MOU. Release the MOU! We can read. What do you have to hide?

It appears USA has some complex immigration issues and pressures to remove persons without any definitive place to send them. Don’t forget immigrants were sent to El Salvador as long-stay visitors in confined quarters. A Jamaican was deported to Eswatini. This created a political storm in USA.

Don’t forget mid-term elections are looming; the Administration’s polling is at its lowest ebb; Republicans won the Presidency, House and Senate on a promise of mass deportation. Don’t forget USA bombed boats in the Caribbean on unsubstantiated allegations they were drug carriers (not a capital offence). Don’t forget the Venezuela incursion allegedly using Caribbean transit facilities. Don’t forget the threats to third party countries that crippled Cuba’s economy. Don’t forget the June 1-5 muscle-flexing visit to Jamaica by the USS Nimitz, one of the world’s largest aircraft carriers.

In this geo-political context, if USA demands Jamaica take some undesirables off its hands, can we say no? Or, better put, do we have the testicular fortitude to say no? Should we?

Apparently we can’t. Or won’t. But why are we kowtowing to a USA Government that obviously doesn’t mean us or anywhere else well? Are we or aren’t we a sovereign nation? Did we or did we not lead the fight against Apartheid despite USA’s/UK’s support for South Africa’s inhumane laws?

Does Jamaica’s foreign policy have any cojones? Does it only involve being subservient to USA? Of what are we afraid? Why do we seem obsequious as we wait for Trump to go? What makes us believe Trumpism will ever leave? Can’t we see Trumpism is genuine, honest, open USA policy transparently admitted for the first time but covertly always so? Now that The Orange Felon has said it out loud what makes us believe USA will ever retreat from this ignoble attitude to “s*ithole countries” like Jamaica?

Jamaica’s foreign policy needs re-evaluation. I concur with Bruce Golding that USA isn’t acting as if we’re friends. So why are we bowing and scraping to USA? Despite ignorant American opinion, USA isn’t the world. It isn’t even popular worldwide. Maybe it’s time to seek different friends rather than this insipid, embarrassing, fawning malleability whenever USA beckons.

When a schoolyard bully decides to use extortionist tactics to steal your lunch, you should discern clearly that the only thing of value he possesses is a threat. If the threat is carried out, his power over you disappears.

The threat is an illusion. The bully is a coward. He hopes the threat makes you weak at the knees. Look him directly in the eye and tell him “no”. He’ll shrivel up and disappear. But, if you give in, he’ll return for more.

USA demanded we terminate a fifty-year agreement with a friend and send home Cuban Health Care Workers. Or else….

We leapt to attention and obeyed.

On March 10 ( Fair Weather Friends) I wrote: “Jamaica chose the path of least resistance; to be fair weather friends. So, we anxiously wait for whatever American demands….next.”

We need wait no longer.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com