Marks denies initiating US third-country nationals deal

Jamaica's Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Ambassador Audrey Marks, has denied initiating the Third Country Nationals (TCNs) arrangement with the United States, insisting that her discussions with US officials centred on developing a program to attract skilled workers to Jamaica.

Marks said the TCN arrangement originated from the United States and was communicated through normal diplomatic channels. Her comments come weeks after a report by The Gleaner, citing an embassy note, stated that the agreement had been proposed by Jamaica.

The minister argued that the TCN arrangement has been conflated with a separate proposal she developed in March 2025 while serving as Jamaica's Ambassador to the US.

"It was in that context I developed the March 2025 Embassy of Jamaica broad cooperation proposal. It was not limited to one issue. It was designed to identify areas in the America First Policy that we could have an intervention for Jamaica's benefit," Marks said.

She explained that the concept note contained five proposals, including an expansion of Jamaica's participation in the US H-2A and H-2B temporary worker programmes.

According to Marks, data available at the time showed there were approximately 14.3 million undocumented workers in the US, accounting for just under 10 per cent of the American workforce. She noted that undocumented workers represented roughly 20 per cent of the US agricultural workforce and were also heavily represented in construction, landscaping, restaurants, food services and manufacturing.

"Those numbers mattered because they showed that if the US reduced its reliance on undocumented labour, there would be a big labour market gap in sectors where Jamaica already had a long-standing record of supplying legal temporary workers," she said.

Marks said Jamaica has participated in the H-2A and H-2B programmes for more than 80 years and that the proposal envisioned increasing the number of Jamaicans participating from approximately 20,000 to as many as 200,000 over time.

She said the initiative would create legal, temporary and rotating employment opportunities, enabling Jamaicans to work overseas, earn an income, gain experience and support their families.

The second proposal involved a structured migration and economic development programme aimed at addressing Jamaica's skills shortages through the migration of skilled workers to the island.

Marks said the proposal sought to create a pathway for skilled workers to relocate to Jamaica, similar in principle to the H-1B visa programme in the United States.

With an estimated 8.5 million undocumented skilled workers in the US who are unlikely to receive residency under evolving immigration policies, she argued that Jamaica has an opportunity to attract talent in technology, infrastructure, services and the emerging digital and artificial intelligence sectors.

"This was also, importantly, a counter to the unstructured migration program that is currently happening in Jamaica, where we have over one million of our skilled people trained in Jamaica with Jamaican resources, who are migrating to take up positions as teachers and nurses and all kinds of professional responsibilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, all over the world," she said.

"When you have up to 80 per cent of your skilled workers leaving, we have been having a brain drain, and we need to address it," she added.

The concept note also proposed establishing a Nearshore Talent Residence Hub, positioning Jamaica as a base where global professionals could live and work while supporting US companies facing tighter H-1B visa restrictions and rising costs. Other proposals included a Nearshore Logistics Hub and enhanced security cooperation targeting drugs, firearms trafficking and transnational crime.

Marks maintained that the TCN arrangement is entirely separate from the structured migration proposal and said discussions on the skilled workers programme continued during meetings held on the margins of a defence conference in Miami in March 2026.

"The discussions were not at any point about Jamaica accepting 10,000 deportees or any such suggestion. It was about the wider US/Jamaica migration and economic development partnership in the original Embassy concept note," she said.

The Government has since confirmed that Jamaica signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States under which third-country nationals transferred from the US will transit through Jamaica before moving to their final destinations. Under the agreement, the United States will cover the costs associated with their stay. The intake is capped at a maximum of 25 individuals every two weeks, with stays expected to last up to seven days and no longer than 14 days.