Jul 19, 2026 Features / Columnists, Ronald Sanders

(Kaieteur News) – Few issues test the sovereignty of small states more severely than requests made by powerful friends. How should a country respond when cooperation is expected, but the proposed terms exceed its legal, financial and institutional capacity? That question lies at the center of the discussions between the United States and several Caribbean governments over Third-Country Nationals (TCNs).

These are persons whom the United States wishes to remove but who are not nationals of the country to which they are being sent. Instead, they are transferred to a third, unrelated country under arrangements negotiated for the purposes of U.S. immigration enforcement.