Jamaica accepts – Jamaica’s National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang says the island has signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Homeland Security to accept up to 25 third-country deportees every two weeks, with housing details, compensation, and detention plans still
When Jamaica’s National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang confirmed the island has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he said the plan is meant to move people through Jamaica—not to hold them in detention.
The details are still being shaped. but Chang told the public that Jamaica has agreed to accept up to 25 people from countries other than Jamaica every two weeks. He said those individuals would not be placed in detention. though the country has not yet determined where they would be housed. He also said compensation for accepting them is still being negotiated.
If the agreement is finalized. Jamaica would join a growing set of countries across the region that have agreed to take third-country migrants deported from the U.S. The list already includes Mexico. El Salvador. Uganda. and other countries that have worked with the Trump administration on its immigration agenda.
The political reaction in Kingston was immediate and sharp. The opposition People’s National Party accused the government of keeping the negotiations out of public view.
Donna Scott Mottley. a spokesperson for the opposition. said in a statement that Jamaicans deserve to know whether discussions have taken place and whether any commitments or understandings have been reached. She argued that accepting the migrants places Jamaica’s internal security, international standing, and fragile social infrastructure at severe risk.
Chang, for his part, drew a line between repatriating Jamaican nationals and processing foreign citizens. He said Jamaica is obligated under international laws to accept the return of its own citizens. But he said the new arrangement does not mean third-country nationals are being dumped on Jamaica’s shores. Chang described it as “a structured, managed process to transit individuals through Jamaica to their final destination.”.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The disagreement in Kingston reflects a wider fracture unfolding across the Caribbean as governments quietly enter varying arrangements with the United States—often aimed at avoiding what they describe as crippling travel restrictions or economic penalties.
The Trump administration’s approach has relied on secretive agreements. with Third Country Deportation Watch saying more than 19. 000 people have been deported to third countries. The group says some deportees have landed in nations they had never even heard of. Most of those deported have been sent to Mexico. according to the group. but more than 1. 500 have been scattered to over 20 other nations. many of them poorer countries in Latin America and Africa.
In the Dominican Republic, a non-binding agreement has been set up to temporarily hold a limited number of non-criminal third-country nationals. That deal explicitly bars unaccompanied minors and nationals from neighboring Haiti, and it has faced heavy criticism.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit defended a similar approach as a “pragmatic step” to preserve vital bilateral relations with Washington, while stipulating that violent offenders would be rejected.
Antigua and Barbuda took a much more restrictive posture, adopting a highly restrictive case-by-case plan. Prime Minister Gaston Browne confirmed a framework capping total acceptances at a maximum of 10 non-criminal individuals.
Guyana, facing what officials describe as a massive oil-boom labor deficit, has used negotiations to address a reported workforce shortfall. The country is exploring a U.S.-bankrolled framework to accept skilled, non-criminal migrants to fill an estimated 80,000-worker shortage.
For critics and human rights advocates, the legal and humanitarian risks of these third-country arrangements are not abstract. They point to the case of Orville Etoria, a Jamaican citizen who was deported from the U.S.
Etoria had lived in the United States for nearly 50 years after arriving as a child in 1976. He later had his green card revoked following a criminal conviction. Instead of being repatriated to Jamaica, he was sent to Eswatini in July 2025.
After his arrival. Etoria and four other third-country nationals were stripped of due process and indefinitely detained at the Matsapha Correctional Complex. a maximum-security prison. The government of Jamaica then intervened intensely for two months, after which Etoria was repatriated back to Jamaica.
A federal district court in the United States struck down the third-country removal policy as unlawful in February 2026. The court ruled that the U.S. cannot dump migrants in undesignated nations without proper notice. Even so, the policy has continued to be enforced while the case awaits appellate action.
Back in Kingston. the dispute is now centered on transparency. security. and what “structured. managed process” will look like once people arrive—whether Jamaica’s parliament and public get fuller details. and whether the risks critics warn about will be confronted before the agreement takes full effect.
Jamaica Horace Chang U.S. Department of Homeland Security third-country deportees immigration crackdown Caribbean immigration agreements People’s National Party Donna Scott Mottley Orville Etoria Eswatini Matsapha Correctional Complex Third Country Deportation Watch