US Politicians try to bully Turks and Caicos over ‘Ammunition Smugglers’

In an extraordinary outburst, US Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, house member for 14th Congressional district in Pennsylvania, has accused the Turks and Caicos Islands of targeting US citizens for arrest with the intention of giving them custodial sentences in a prison that has been flagged by the UN for its human rights abuses. It is, of course, nonsense.

It’s election season in the States, and his comments are no doubt intended for a domestic audience. In fact, he admits it. “This is a recurring theme for our nation under President Biden, where tourists become captives and foreign nations no longer respect us” he said in one of his daily tweets on the matter. I wonder what the real reason is for the lack of respect? Maybe their politicians slandering British Overseas Territories in the quest for votes may be a factor.

His comments relate to the Governor and local politicians refusing to act unconstitutionally by allowing Americans arrested for serious crimes to return home without charge. This specifically relates to five Americans, previously unknown to each other, arrested for taking live ammunition onto the islands. So far, one has pleaded guilty and was given a suspended sentence and $6,700 fine, one has been allowed to return to the States for medical reasons, and three are awaiting trial. There is a mandatory prison sentence for the offence in Turks and Caicos, which can be avoided only in exceptional circumstances. The fact the first person dealt with had his sentence suspended means he probably had a very good lawyer.

Reschenthaler believes that taking ammo through airport security is merely a hazard of being American, and should be overlooked. But each case is different. One person was caught when boarding a cruise ship, and one wonders how it made it on at the start of his voyage. Another had ammunition in his hand luggage when he was leaving the island. Apparently, even if visitors to the islands are aware of the law, the likelihood of Americans having forgotten the bullets and cartridges in their luggage is so high that applying the law to them is unfair. That’s not usually how deterrents work, and American exceptionalism doesn’t mean making exceptions for Americans. In fact, the US Embassy in the Bahamas last year released a statement warning Americans that it would not be able to secure their release if arrested under the TCI Firearms Act.

The American line was initially that the arrests of American tourists were an unintended consequence of the territory’s attempt to crack down on gang violence and last week a congressional delegation made that case to the Governor. They were told that the Governor and local politicians have no power to intervene in the judicial process. It has to run its course, and the matter would be dealt with in Court. It was after this meeting that Reschenthaler made his outrageous claims. The arrests were not now an unintended consequence, he claimed, but deliberate targeting of American citizens. After the first case heard did not lead to a custodial sentence, he made another statement saying it should never have been taken to court, and the experience was “terrifying”.

To paraphrase; the Governor, and the Turks and Caicos Human Rights Commission have both stated that the congressman is being less than honest. The Governor said she did not recognise his version of their meeting. She said that she and the FCDO official present merely explained how the separation of the executive and the judiciary worked in the territory. She reminded the Americans that in British territories “the rule if law is paramount and all are equal before the law” They should be mindful of the need for “respectful dialogue that guards against misrepresentation”.

The Human Rights Commission has also confirmed that the claim made by Reschenthaler, that the UN had raised concerns about Human Rights at the prison was untrue, and they themselves inspect the prison every three months. As a British Territory, Turks and Caicos is also covered by the European Convention on Human Rights.

But what of the other Americans? Reschenthaler has a pinned tweet on his X account in which he declares: “I won’t rest until Americans can once again set foot on the islands without putting their livelihoods at risk.” What happened to the concept of personal responsibility over there? “Government will come to the rescue” doesn’t sound like a voice from the land that gave us Ronald Reagan. Maybe the congressman’s efforts should be focussed more on encouraging Americans to check their luggage before they travel, or maybe even have separate baggage for overseas if they are in the habit of transporting ammunition. He might have better luck with that than challenging the rule of law in a British sovereign territory. In any case only six out over 195 people arrested in the last six years for similar offences have been Americans, and it doesn’t only happen in the Turks and Caicos Islands. But, then again, it is an election year.

The former President of TCI (and current President of FOTBOT), Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, has been very forthright in her views, and discussed the issue with us at our recent webinar. Writing for the Turks and Caicos Sun, she said that the heroes of the story are the people working for Turks and Caicos Airport security, who are discovering illegal items in the baggage far more effectively than their counterparts in the USA. She also criticised the “ignorant and arrogant response” of Kevin Stitt, the Governor of Oklahoma, who had suggested that the US Government bans travel to the Turks and Caicos if the territory's Government does not withdraw the charges. He is showing an “obvious lack of understanding” of how the legal process works, said Cartwright-Robinson, who is more than happy for US politicians to highlight the strong response of Turks and Caicos to its gang problem. Maybe Stitt should be warning people, rather than cancelling flights.