The country’s Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) seems to be under threat again, this time from the United States.
As a result, the Cabinet held discussions “on the evident threat to the programme” which is offered in several OECS countries and done so successfully.
Reports are that the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that CIPs are a threat to US security.
This is a position which was once held by the European Union Commission and according to Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office Lionel Hurst “was successfully debunked”.
Addressing the matter as to the specific security concerns which the US Secretary of State raised about the CIP during yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Hurst said the US believes that by granting citizenship to individuals whom they don’t know, it would somehow threaten their security.
Hurst outlined that the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) have already armed themselves with legal briefs and other published data which would prove the claims made by Rubio to be wrong.
“But we have submitted every single citizenship application that we have had to the US government.
What they have said recently is that they don’t think that they should be vetting our citizenship programme because it costs them to take a look at each of them.
“But we have indicated quite clearly, and this is where the evidence comes in, that every single person making an application for citizenship under the CIP programme in Antigua, every single person has to provide lots of data,” Hurst said.
While expressing optimism that the United States’ assertion would be proven wrong when it enters such a claim against the OECS countries, Hurst said it’s the responsibility of the Barbados Prime Minister (Mia Mottley) as chairman of CARICOM to argue on behalf of the OECS countries with CIP against the US findings. He stressed that Mottley is a King’s Counsel (KC).
And we employ several agencies in each country, almost, to do background checks in addition to whatever information the applicant might provide. So we know that Antigua and Barbuda is not a security threat to the United States.
“Our system of granting citizenship is more intrusive and seeks more answers from the applicants than when that applicant is making an application for a US visa. So they’ll grant a US visa on far less information than the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Programme will confer citizenship,” Hurst noted.
He concluded, “So that is the evidence. That evidence is very clear. And we know that none of our new citizens pose a threat to the United States.”
