Why isn’t the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs backing up Audrey Marks?

The issue of Third Country Nationals (TCN) and deportees from the United States being taken into Jamaica has been met with overwhelming disapproval by many people of this country.

The subject of this opprobrium is Ambassador Audrey Marks, Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Efficiency, Innovation and Digital Transformation.

She has gone on a number of media platforms in an attempt to set the record straight and make it known that there is a concerted effort to destroy her reputation and character and that the issue was conflated with her original proposal.

Audrey Marks is new to politics, becoming an MP for the first time in last September’s general election.

There are many who do not believe her explanation and characterise what she has to say as obfuscation.

One would have thought that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs would ride to the rescue in a show of support and make it known that she is not alone in all of this, but to date, there has been no word.

Marks is all alone on the Serengeti, vulnerable to prey, and the hyenas are closing in, with members of her pride nowhere to be seen.

As a new Minister and a first-time parliamentarian, she would expect some solidarity, especially from the JLP, but none has been forthcoming.

Her political career has taken a major hit, and it’s been under a year since she joined the Government.

Many hold the view “ She sold us out to the Americans,” despite her efforts to vociferously stress that is not the case.

At the Battle of Waterloo, Commander of the Prussian Army, Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, rode in and saved the day for the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon. His support was vital in turning this crucial battle.

No such support for Ambassador Marks.  No Minister has stepped up to shield her and see to it that she doesn’t take the fall. 

It raises the question, does she have her detractors in the JLP, and are some resentful of her rise in the Government? This would explain why some in her own camp want to see her vanquished.

The Government’s communication arm has been poor since it won the general election last year.

It has opted to farm out communications to young bloggers and bloggers rather than have a team in place that puts out regular details on the Government’s accomplishments. Time and time again, it handles negative news poorly and reacts after the damage is done. It may be a case of ruling party fatigue and a lack of concentration, but this can be detrimental to both the Prime Minister and the JLP’s fortunes.

Funds for the Melissa recovery effort, the IC investigation into the Prime Minister’s statutory declarations, NARRA, the Wheatley scandal, the electricity blackout, the TCN deal, and now Audrey Marks. Right about now, the Government is not looking too good in the public’s eyes, and there is work to be done.

A little over a decade ago, Delano Seavright, Matthew Samuda, and Nestor Morgan did a brilliant job of positioning the JLP and getting the message out. They were a pride of young lions, eager to assert dominance and were able to win over Jamaicans.

Today, the communications arm is lacklustre and slow to react effectively. Now back in power, there is no urgency to vigorously protect the government’s position and trumpet the Government’s successes. The communications arm has gone from ferocious young lions to fat tabby cats content to curl up next to the fire and keep warm.

 Members of that communications arm back then are now rightfully ministers and making their way but there is a lot to be learned from them and the strategies they employed.

It was a mistake to allow Audrey Marks to go out there in the media without any backup from senior Government ministers. Emily Shields did a fantastic job with her sit-down with Marks, and it was a fine piece of broadcast journalism up there with some of the best. Her questions were probing, salient and if I do say it, on the mark. She was like a boxer dragging his opponent from the ropes and throwing uppercuts and jabs-Marvellous Marvin Hagler style!

After all is said, the fact is the United States will dump its undesirables in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. Jamaican will not refuse and will be eager to be seen as a friend particularly of the Trump administration. President Trump is feared by many Caribbean political leaders and the power he wields has them quaking in their boots.

President Trump and the MAGA movement have made it patently clear that the United States will not be overrun by third-world countries that pose a threat to its culture, its status, its standing as a champion of Western civilisation. All the more reason to make your countries desirable for your citizens, a place where they can prosper, a nation that is going places, not dependent on handouts and the whims of other countries. A country should be able to feed itself and take care of its citizens, utilise its professional class, and rely on its own people who have the needed skill sets.

The United Kingdom proposed funding a state-of-the-art prison in Jamaica on the proviso that Jamaica houses Jamaican prisoners and criminals in the UK. That was rejected, and the reasons for that should be obvious.

Rwanda was used as a dumping ground for deportees from the United States. Rwanda agreed to provide housing, healthcare and job training instead of detaining them.

In 2022, the UK’s Conservative Government put in place the Migration and Economic Development Partnership policy, which sought to relocate people who entered the UK illegally to claim asylum in Rwanda. The UK Government then stressed it was not a move to form a prison or penal colony but rather for the unwanted to have their asylum applications processed under Rwanda’s legal system. Just like Jamaica, Rwanda was targeted as a dumping ground for deportees.

This is why it is important that Jamaicans now see the contents of the MOU and have a chronology of what was decided and when. It would have been better for Ambassador Marks if she had done so rather than focused on how she has been vilified. This approach would have added to her political stock, particularly at a time when the Government has been seen as lax when it comes to transparency and accountability. She would have been heralded as a new breed of Jamaican politician and hailed as a leader to be trusted who speaks honestly. It was an opportunity missed.

It is naive and insults the intelligence of Jamaicans to hold onto the belief that these people being sent here are not criminals and despicable beings-they are undesirables that Jamaica must now deal with. These people will seek asylum in Jamaica, and there is the likelihood of an imported criminal element that will put a strain on the country, just when the Government’s efforts to reduce crime are paying off.

The danger to Jamaica is clear and present.

Why isn’t the United States sending these deportees to Austria, Switzerland, or France? Why aren’t G7 countries agreeing to take in deportees?

Does Jamaica have the absorptive capacity to take in this jetsam and flotsam, given the challenges it faces post Hurricane Melissa?

The United States has made it clear what its intentions are, and that is what should be considered here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was forthright when he said, “ We are actively searching for countries to take people from third countries, not just El Salvador. We are working with our countries to say WE WANT TO SEND YOU SOME OF THE MOST DESPICABLE HUMAN BEINGS TO YOUR COUNTRIES AS A FAVOUR TO US. The further away from America, the better, so they can’t come back across the border. I’m not apologetic about it. The President was elected to keep America safe and to get rid of a bunch of perverts and paedophiles, and child rapists out of our country.”

Right here is the counter to the hordes of unwanted third-world immigrants coming into the greatest economy in the world. America is willing to pay for this exercise so what sum is Jamaica getting for this? What does it stand to gain from this favour? This needs to be conveyed to the people of Jamaica now that the Gleaner has revealed this clandestine endeavour. The Government can no longer keep the details hidden-it’s too late for that now, with many Jamaicans apprehensive about this TCN agreement. It can no longer control the narrative.

President Trump has said the United States should accept immigrants from places like Norway not “ shithole” third-world countries. It was a derisive comment, but let’s not kid ourselves, we all know what he means. Jamaica does fall in that category, and he is using Caribbean countries as a receptacle for American excrement.

In 2018, President Trump said “ Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Now in 2026, he is sending them back from whence they came. You want to be my friend? You don’t want your visa taken away? You will do this and do it now!

This is what Trump said on the presidential campaign in 2015 about Mexican immigrants. “They are not sending their best. They’re sending people who have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapist. And some, I assume, are good people.”

He didn’t mean just Mexico. He meant the dark people of the third world who, if allowed to enter unchecked, threaten to weaken America and make it unrecognisable.

Most Americans agree with President Trump on this. No one has pinned Ambassador Marks on America’s policy on immigration and what it means for Jamaica and the Caribbean. This is the crux of the matter. 

The diplomatic note was leaked, and the Government handled it poorly. What has to be addressed with the people of Jamaica is what does America’s deportee/asylum seeker policy mean for their country?

Will it be like lion fish wreaking destruction on other fish species in Jamaican waters?

“ Sadly, if you import people from third-world countries, you quickly become a third-world country – and there’s not a thing you can do about it. Make America Great Again,” wrote President Trump last month.

This is what the Jamaican Government must let sink in. Focus on your country. Make it a better place for your citizens. Put Jamaica’s welfare first. Make Jamaica a desirable country to live in so that you are not confronted with  54 per cent of the population rather live elsewhere. Your kind is not wanted in the United States.

The Government is in a tough spot because it has the predilection to placate the United States. It doesn’t want to be seen as pushing back on this, while at the same time, it must take into consideration the sentiments of its people. 

Character is destiny. Ambassador Marks’s voice shouldn’t be the only one heard on this.