Why would anyone consider to place little law abiding countries like Antigua and Dominica on US Travel ban list of countries?
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Why little Antigua and Dominica on Trump Travel Ban
Why little Antigua and Dominica on Trump Travel Ban
Wed, Dec 17, '25 at 1:50 AM
debut: May 14, '05
25,826 runs
@Slipfeeler
Visa overstays?
Black and brown faces?
Wed, Dec 17, '25 at 9:59 AM
@Halliwell
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says he believes that “a case of mis-communication” could have led to the decision by the United States (US) Government to impose travel restrictions on Dominicans entering the North American country.
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday included the island and two other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries whose nationals would either be “fully” restricted or have limited entry into the United States. The measure goes into effect from January 1, next year.
Trump said that in the case of Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, the two Carciom countries have historically had Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes without residency, which poses challenges for screening and vetting purposes.
Under the CBI programme, several Caribbean countries, including Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, offer citizenship to foreign investors in return for making a substantial investment in the socio-economic development of these countries.
Trump said both Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica have “historically had CBI without residency” and that the entry into the United States of nationals of these two countries as immigrants, and as non-immigrants on B-1, B-2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas, is hereby suspended.
He said consular officers shall reduce the validity for any other non-immigrant visa issued to nationals of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica to the extent permitted by law.
Speaking on the state-owned DBS Radio, Skerrit said Dominica has had fruitful discussions with the United States on the CBI programme, implementing measures agreed to during their discussions.
“It could very well be a situation of mis-communication between the White House and other arms of the government, the State Department and the US Treasury,” Skerrit said with reference to the latest move by Washington.
“I must say that the US itself was the most engaging and most supportive in respect to the review of the…(CBI) legislation. So we will continue to work on this and we will send formal notes to the United States Government today seeking clarification on this matter and urging a review…of the decision. I think if the reason given by the White House is that there is no residency requirement, then that has already been addressed with the support of the United States Government. So it could very well be a situation of mis-communication…but I don’t want to speculate,” he added.
Skerrit said he will be awaiting “accurate information” from Washington and that “will be the first order of business”.
“Once that is done, we will respond to it formally and of course as always we will keep the Dominican public fully informed and apprised of the developments as they come,” he said, urging citizens to remain “calm” as the Government focuses on what is to be done in the circumstances.
Skerrit said he had met with US officials last week “and they were very pleased with what we have done, not only on this matter, but matters we have been working with the United States Government on over the last eight months or so”.
”So this was really a surprise to us coming from the White House yesterday. But I am confident if that is the reason then we should be able to address it and if there are any other reasons that they may have…I am sure we can negotiate ourselves out of a challenge. At this stage, I ask all of us to be calm and not allow our consternation to take over us and from a government standpoint, we will work through the issue with the United States Government,” he said.
Skerrit spoke of the importance of the CBI programme to Dominica, saying that it has played a significant role in the socio-economic development of the island, particularly after natural disasters.
“The CBI has been going through its own challenges for a number of years and this is not anything new and everybody knows of the importance of the CBI programme to the well being of all of the countries that are part of the CBI programme. Developed countries have engaged in their programme…whether it is residence programmes or…whatever. When you look at Dominica and its vulnerability to natural disasters and external shocks, had it not been for the CBI programme, we would not have been able to build so many homes…and able to respond to the devastating impact of Tropical Storm Erica and Hurricane Maria and COVID-19,” Skerrit said.
He said that the CBI has also provided funding for a number of infrastructural programmes including hotels and the international airport now under construction.
Skerrit said that this is why Dominica has been working with the United States to iron out differences over the CBI programme including legislation passed in October this year.
He further said he does not believe that the latest Washington move will affect the ongoing relationship between the two countries, noting that his administration has enjoyed a closer working relationship with the Trump administration than that of his predecessor, Joe Biden, as well as an increase in spending by Washington on Dominica’s national security concerns.
“So the relationship in my mind between Dominica and the Trump administration has been very very good…at all levels and so I don’t see it as affecting the relationship,” Skerrit said, noting that both countries are sovereign states and are seeking after their own interests.
“In that case we believe they got it wrong and we are hoping that they recognise that they got it wrong and that they will reverse the decision in respect to the imposition on Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda,” he said, confirming that he is in contact with his Antigua and Barbudan counterpart, Gaston Browne on the issue.
Source: Jamaica Observer
Wed, Dec 17, '25 at 11:23 AM
debut: Dec 3, '02
16,742 runs
Skerrit could reciprocate and do the same for US citizens traveling to D'ca
Thu, Dec 18, '25 at 9:52 AM
Apologies - couldn't find a link.....
Are We in a New Cold War? A CARICOM Perspective
By Prof C. Justin Robinson: Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal at The University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda.
On the evening of Tuesday, December 16th, Antiguans and Dominicans received unwelcome news. The Trump administration had announced an expanded travel ban, and among the countries added were Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica. For most of us, this is not an abstraction, this is the aunt in Brooklyn we visit every summer, the cousin's wedding in Miami next spring, the graduate programme, the job interview, the family reunions that stitch Caribbean life to American life. For thirty years, that connection required no particular political consciousness to maintain. You got your visa, you boarded your flight, you moved between worlds. The US was not a foreign policy challenge, it was simply where family lived, where the culture that shaped your music and dreams originated. And now, suddenly, it is complicated and many Caribbean people have no framework for understanding why.
I have been thinking about this since a conversation with one of my graduate students several weeks ago. We had been discussing the American military buildup in the Caribbean, the USS Gerald R. Ford stationed off Venezuela's coast, over fifteen thousand US personnel deployed, more than eighty people killed in strikes on boats the Americans claim carried drugs. She asked what seemed to be a most naïve question, "But what has Venezuela done to the United States?" Her confusion is itself the story of a generation raised in peace and deeply embedded in American culture.
For those of us who came of age during the Cold War, military buildups required no explanation rooted in bilateral grievance. Great powers project force because geography is destiny and spheres of influence must be maintained. Grenada "did" nothing to the United States in 1983. Yet American paratroopers still landed at Point Salines. But my student, like most of her generation across CARICOM, has no living memory of that world. She was born into a Caribbean that had become, almost without anyone noticing, a Zone of Peace, not as diplomatic aspiration but as lived reality. For thirty years, the great powers largely left us alone. The United States remained the fabric of Caribbean life due to family, remittances and culture, but not as a military presence. The limited Russian presence retreated and China arrived with infrastructure loans, not warships. This generation lacks a framework their grandparents possessed for understanding why superpowers behave as they do.
There is something else that Washington and other great powers consistently fail to grasp, the Caribbean's instinctive, bone-deep anti-militarism. This is not ideological pacifism, it is simply that war is not part of our lived reality. CARICOM nations do not have viable armies, our Defense Forces are tiny, Antigua's could fit in a small auditorium. For Caribbean people, war is something that happens far away, in failed states, where politics has catastrophically broken down. It is not something we do and the very idea of military conflict as a tool of policy feels alien. When American officials speak of "military options" and "all tools on the table," when aircraft carriers appear on our horizon, they may not realize how foreign this sounds to Caribbean ears. We are non-military because that is who we are as surely as cricket and carnival.
This context is essential for understanding the impossible choices now facing Caribbean leaders, choices that may look like indecision, weakness or even stubbornness to outside observers but are in fact the careful calculations that small-state survival demands. Consider the dilemmas, When Trinidad's Prime Minister offered American forces access to her territory, Venezuela's President Maduro declared it tantamount to an act of war. When Antigua declined a US request to host a military radar installation, we now find ourselves on a travel ban list, while Grenada still considering a similar request, does not. Cooperate with the Americans and face Venezuelan threats, decline and risk American displeasure. Accept Chinese infrastructure investment and attract Washington's suspicion, reject it and lose development funding your people desperately need.
There is no "right answer" here and there is no simple path that avoids all costs. Every choice carries consequences, and the consequences fall not on distant diplomats but on ordinary citizens, on visa applications, on trade relationships, on the cost of goods, on opportunities opened or foreclosed. This is why Caribbean citizens must understand what their leaders are actually navigating. It is easy to demand clarity, pick a side, state your position, stand firm, but small states do not have the luxury of grand gestures. Our leverage is limited, our economies are vulnerable, our populations can fit inside a single American city. What looks like ambiguity is often wisdom, what looks like hesitation is often the careful maintenance of relationships that cannot be easily rebuilt once broken.
And the crisis is real. The United States has assembled its largest military deployment in the Western Hemisphere since the Cuban Missile Crisis. A blockade of Venezuelan oil exports has been ordered. Venezuela has turned to China, Russia, and Iran for support. The Caribbean finds itself where it has always preferred not to be, between great powers in collision. CARICOM's response has been one of improvisation, not coordination, each nation calculating its interests in real-time. The region needs to refocus and rapidly pivot to the reality of a global shift that demands nimble, sophisticated diplomacy of a kind we have not needed for a generation.
My generation understood this. We watched careers disrupted and families divided by Cold War politics. We knew that maintaining relationships with powerful nations requires constant attention, diplomatic skill, and sometimes difficult tradeoffs. These were not reasons for resentment but simply realities of a world where power is distributed unequally and geography matters. The Caribbean's Zone of Peace was never guaranteed. It was a gift of historical circumstance, a generation-long pause. That pause is ending and what replaces it will be determined by skill, the political and diplomatic skill that small states must deploy to survive between giants.
I call these skills Caribbean dance moves, the ability to maintain balance while the floor shifts, to move gracefully between partners without losing your footing, to keep relationships intact when the music changes tempo. These are not skills of resistance or antagonism, they are skills of survival and dignity. They require understanding the tensions between maintaining deep bonds with the United States, bonds driven by geography, bonds of family, culture, and shared values, while also maintaining the sovereign right to chart our own course. Powerful nations will act in their interests. Our task is not to resent this but to navigate it wisely, preserving what matters most, our relationships, our economies, and our room to manoeuvre. A generation raised in peace, embedded in American life and instinctively suspicious of military logic learn very quickly the grammar of a world they did not choose but must now navigate.
The music has started again! My student asked a simple question. The answer, it turns out, is anything but simple. And that is the lesson her generation, all of us must now absorb.
Fri, Dec 19, '25 at 9:31 AM
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There is no "right answer" here and there is no simple path that avoids all costs. Every choice carries consequences, and the consequences fall not on distant diplomats but on ordinary citizens, on visa applications, on trade relationships, on the cost of goods, on opportunities opened or foreclosed. This is why Caribbean citizens must understand what their leaders are actually navigating.
The Caribbean's Zone of Peace was never guaranteed. It was a gift of historical circumstance, a generation-long pause.
An opinion; a word salad except for the above... yawn.