Chang tells Parliament: Deportee deal was a US request

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang told Parliament on Wednesday that the controversial deal to temporarily accommodate non-Jamaican deportees from the United States originated from a request by Washington. 

Chang's account of the deal's origins, however, sits in tension with revelations in a diplomatic note sent to Jamaica by the United States Embassy in Kingston, and reported on in The Gleaner on Thursday. 

Chang, who is also deputy prime minister of Jamaica, was responding to a question from Opposition lawmaker Dr Dayton Campbell, Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern, during a sitting of the House of Representatives.

"Did a member of the government approach the United States of America to enter into this agreement? Was it initiated by a member of the government?" Campbell asked.

Chang said it was the United States that approached the Jamaican Government. "The issue of the TCN was a request from the United States government," he said, referring to third-country national (TCN) bilateral arrangements in which one country agrees to accept, process or temporarily host foreign nationals deported or removed from another nation.

Chang said the arrangement is not a situation “where we ask for one thing and offer another.”

“We have a long a long-standing relationship …since 1962, and they are primary partners in area of security, economic activities and many areas… And, there are many agreements and MOUs that have gone on with them as partners and they're not discussing a quid pro quo basis,” said Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister. 

“In this case, the United States requested and our professionals, after the government decided, negotiated and agreed an understanding which we are comfortable with.”

The diplomatic note named Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister Audrey Marks, not the US government, as having proposed a third-country national arrangement to the United States. 

Marks, who demitted office as US ambassador in March 2025, has responsibility for with responsibility for efficiency, innovation, and digital transformation.

According to the document, shared with The Gleaner, Marks made the proposal to a US official attached to the US Department of Homeland Security during the Americas Counter Cartel Conference at the US Southern Command in Miami, Florida on March 5, 2026.

 It stated that Marks made the proposal “for a Third-Country National arrangement that would have Jamaica receive up to 10,000 third-country nationals from the United States”.

However, since the existence of the proposed arrangement was first revealed by The Gleaner on Tuesday, the Government has maintained that there is no agreement for 10,000 TCN’s to transit through Jamaica’s ports. 

Efforts by The Gleaner to reach Marks on Wednesday were unsuccessful, as calls to her phone and questions sent via WhatsApp went unanswered by the deadline. 

She responded subsequently, telling The Gleaner: "It is actually not protocol to comment on the matters that fall in the portfolio of other ministers. The only comment that I could make is that I supported the MoU as part of the Cabinet-approved process and decision."

The Gleaner had asked Marks what role, if any, she played in initiating or advancing discussions with US counterparts on the arrangement; whether any such role was on her own initiative or under instruction from Cabinet or the line minister; and, if she did play a role, when those discussions took place.

Ahead of his comments in Parliament, Chang also told a post-Cabinet news conference on Wednesday Jamaica did not initiate the request for a TCN deal.

"No, TCN is an American request. They have done so with several allies across the region and throughout the world. So, it's their challenge that they're trying to resolve in a humane way," Chang said.

"Why would we suggest? We don't have a problem," he added. 

Pressed further on whether the US communicated with Jamaica that the arrangement could see up to 10,000 deportees accommodated over the life of the deal, Chang said: "No, there's no such discussion between the governments".

"If somebody talks to them (US) on the street, I don't know about that," the minister said. 

He added that all communication with the US government on immigration matters goes through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and that "no such communication or information has gone through."

News of the deal has upset many Jamaicans, who have questioned the appropriateness of Jamaica accepting people the United States does not want within its borders. It has also revived scrutiny of Jamaica's deportation of Haitians fleeing violence, and the termination of the Cuban medical cooperation programme amid US pressure on regional governments.

In a statement on Tuesday, Chang said the deportees would be held in Jamaica on a transit basis, as they would then be sent to their home countries. He said the arrangement is for no more than 25 to be sent to Jamaica every two weeks. 

At Wednesday's news conference, Chang maintained that position but also disclosed that the TCNs will, however, be able to seek authorisation to stay in the island. 

He said those who opt to remain in Jamaica will have to apply through the courts for asylum status.  “And if they get asylum status we retain them,” he said, adding that Jamaica will not accept persons with criminal convictions. 

According to Chang, the TCNs included in the new arrangement with the US “are coming literally from being apprehended at the border and sent to Jamaica after some routine checks are done.”

 “They don’t intend to stay in Jamaica so the United States pays their airfare and they go back home. Their return rate so far has been about 94 per cent,” the deputy prime minister said.

 He insisted, however, that if all 25 TCNs in the biweekly cohort decide to remain in Jamaica, “we stop the programme immediately” so that there will be no crowding here.

On the agreement's duration, Chang said it has no fixed end date. "It doesn't have an end point. It doesn't seem to even have the starting point either. It's an understanding which, while there is a need, we'll work with. If we find it impossible to pursue it, we discontinue it," he said.

Chang reiterated that individuals transferred under the deal are not detainees and will be free to move around while the International Organization for Migration manages their stay, fully funded by the US government. 

He confirmed Cabinet had approved the arrangement before it was signed last week, but said there is no intention to table the memorandum of understanding itself in Parliament, though operational procedures governing how it functions will be made public and tabled once finalised.

Asked by lawmakers whether the Finance Ministry had conducted a fiscal impact assessment, Chang said this was unnecessary. 

“The ministry of finance naturally would be would not be consulted because the primary cost to us will be the deployment of our staffing and their establishment which is why again the numbers were set at the numbers they're at that we can manage that number in addition to what we are currently doing with other immigration activities,” he said. 

Opposition legislators also raised concerns about accountability safeguards, including how the government will deal with deportees who want to integrate into the society.  

Chang reiterated that that under the arrangement, the deportees would be "free to move around”.

Chang also said he retains the power to deport any individual found to pose a risk, even after arrival, and that the threshold of ten people remaining beyond 30 days would trigger a pause in further transfers while the arrangement is reviewed.’

Opposition Leader Mark Golding had also questioned Chang on whether he was aware that in February, a US federal court ruled that these TCN arrangements are unlawful. The Trump administration is appealing the decision. 

“Should this (Jamaica-US deal) not at least await legal clarity in the United States as to whether such an arrangement is proper under their law?”

Chang did not address that issue in his responses. 

Third-Country National deals have emerged as a controversial pillar of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. 

The arrangements that have drawn sustained scrutiny over constitutional protections and humanitarian risk for those transferred under them, especially for deportees with no ties to the countries they are to return. 

Local rights group Jamaicans for Justice has raised concerns about potential human rights breaches with the arrangement. 

It said that as a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, Jamaica has a binding duty not to facilitate the transfer or holding of individuals who face persecution or torture. 

The JFJ said many of the TCNs already hold US filings of ‘withholding of removal’ or protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), confirming they cannot safely return home. 

“Inadequate independent screening upon arrival could place Jamaica in violation of these core obligations,” the statement said. 

Last year, the Jamaican government intervened in a case to have Orville Etoria returned to Jamaica after he was deported by the US under a TCN deal to the African nation of Eswatini, where he had no ties, and was arbitrarily detained in a maximum-security prison for over two months without charge or access to legal counsel.

Following intense international scrutiny and Jamaican diplomatic efforts, Etoria was repatriated to Jamaica in September 2025. 

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