Bill seeks to ban nationals of 39 countries from U.S. One Caribbean nation is pushing back
A South Carolina lawmaker wants to permanently ban immigrants from dozens of predominantly Black and brown countries from entering the United States, but at least one Caribbean nation is pushing back.
In a letter to Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace that was copied to several high-ranking members of the House of Representatives, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, said his twin-island nation “fully respects the right” of a House member to propose immigration policies. But Antigua and Barbuda should not be among the countries targeted in Mace’s proposal, he said, and “any proposed measures affecting friendly countries should be informed by accurate information and objective facts.”
Mace introduced her bill on Wednesday. It doesn’t yet appear to have a companion in the Senate and likely faces an uphill battle in Congress, where there is strong support for some of the countries she has targeted. She has named the legislation the “Third World Immigration Moratorium Act,” and lists 39 countries whose nationals would be permanently banned from entering the United States.
Targeted exceptions include lawful permanent residents, dual nationals from non-designated countries and others. The secretary of Homeland Security would retain discretionary waiver authority to grant case-by-case waivers, the bill says, if admitting an individual is determined to be in the nation’s “critical interest.”
The countries whose nationals would be barred include five in the Western Hemisphere —Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Haiti and Venezuela —along with Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Individuals with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority would also be prohibited from entering the U.S.
She said the countries listed align directly with President Trump’s partial and full travel ban restricting entry of certain foreign nationals to protect the security of the U.S.
“We are not a dumping ground for the Third World’s problems,” Mace said in a statement announcing her bill. “This bill is a straightforward solution to keep dangerous aliens out and send a message to every country on this list: The free ride is over.”
Taking to Facebook to tout the legislation, she featured a post with her oversized image in the foreground, with fading images of heavily armed Black soldiers.
“If you import the third world, you will become the third world,” wrote Mace, who is serving the final months of her House term after losing her bid for South Carolina governor earlier this year. “Our bill makes crystal clear: Entry into the United States is a privilege, not a right. We make absolutely no apologies for defending it.”
Sanders is taking issue with not just his eastern Caribbean nation’s inclusion in the congresswoman’s proposed list of countries but also with how Antigua and Barbuda has been repeatedly characterized by the Trump administration since it was hit with a partial travel ban, along with the island of Dominica, in December.
Sanders noted that the president’s proclamation, which imposed a partial travel ban on holders of Antigua and Barbuda passports, had a factual error in its characterization of the country’s Citizenship by Investment Program, which the White House cited in justifying the travel restrictions. The program allows people who make sizable investments in a country to apply for citizenship.
“The government of Antigua and Barbuda has repeatedly advised the United States government that the statement made about Antigua and Barbuda in Presidential Proclamation 10998 is factually incorrect,” Sanders said. Contrary to the proclamation’s claim that Antigua and Barbuda “has historically had Citizenship by Investment without residency,” the Caribbean nation has always included a residency requirement, Sanders wrote.
“This has been formally communicated to the United States government on several occasions,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sanders noted that Mace’s bill erroneously referred to the Caribbean nation as if they were two separate nations rather than a single sovereign state.
“The error illustrates the importance of ensuring that legislation affecting friendly nations is founded upon accurate and verified information,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda not ‘Third World’ its ambassador says
Sanders is also objecting that his country of 90,000 people is being labeled Third World and placed in “the same category as several countries facing armed conflict, prolonged economic instability or large-scale irregular migration.”
He also notes that Antigua and Barbuda, which was just officially classified by the World Bank among countries with relatively high incomes of nationals, has one of the highest per-capita incomes in the Caribbean.
“It is a stable parliamentary democracy founded upon the rule of law, with an independent judiciary and democratic institutions that have earned the confidence of its citizens and international partners alike,” said Sanders, rejecting any suggestion that his nation presents immigration or security risks comparable to many of the nations listed in the bill.
He emphasized that the relationship between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States is longstanding and mutually beneficial.
“United States citizens travel to Antigua and Barbuda without visas, many own homes and businesses in the country, and American investment has long been welcomed and protected under Antigua and Barbuda’s laws,” the diplomat said. “The two countries cooperate closely in security, law enforcement, disaster response, education, tourism, trade and investment.”
And to be clear, Sanders said, no citizen of Antigua and Barbuda “has ever sought refugee status in the United States,” and visa overstays have traditionally remained at little more than one 1%.
Antigua and Barbuda, he added, “has consistently cooperated with United States immigration authorities in accepting the prompt return of its nationals who are lawfully removed.”
This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 8:45 PM.
