The United Progressive Party is hosting a public consultation on the government’s third-country deportees deal tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Moravian Conference Centre ahead of the special parliamentary session expected next week. This is the most significant opportunity yet for ordinary Antiguans and Barbudans to have their voices heard before their representatives debate and vote on the issue.
Why the Town Hall Is Happening
UPP Political Leader and Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle has been unequivocal about why his party is taking the issue to the public before the debate reaches the floor of Parliament.
“This is not a situation that you handle just as government, because again it’s going to affect the entire country,” MP Pringle said during a recent Voice of the People interview on Observer Radio. “When you listen to the type of people that they’re [US] trying to get out — the most despicable, the rapist, the pedophiles — first thing that should have happened when this came up is for the government to call the members of the opposition and start the dialog, where they share the information surrounding this situation, and you start the consultation with the people.”
MP Pringle said the opposition cannot go to Parliament and claim to speak for the people of Antigua and Barbuda without first hearing from them directly. “We cannot go and have any meaningful debate on behalf of people, and we have not engaged the people who are going to speak on their behalf,” he said.
A “Done Deal” That Parliament Is Being Asked to Rubber-Stamp
The Opposition Leader has described the upcoming parliamentary debate as an exercise in rubber-stamping a decision already made by the Prime Minister and Ambassador Ron Sanders months ago — pointing to the December 19, 2025 signing of the MOU with the United States, which was not disclosed to the public for more than six months.
“Based on what Prime Minister Gaston Browne would have said on Saturday, this is a done deal,” MP Pringle told Voice of the People listeners. “So It’s basically for us to go to parliament to rubber stamp something, a decision that he and Ron Sanders would have made months ago.”
THE Opposition Leader confirmed that his office received no formal communication from the Prime Minister’s Office on the matter. “There wasn’t any formal communication, even from the halls of Parliament, even from the Prime Minister’s office to the office of the leader of the opposition,” he said. “A matter of fact, I saw it like you on social media.”
What Pringle Wants Answered
