Opposition Senator Malaka Parker has called on Antigua and Barbuda to establish a modern, fair, and humane immigration system that provides non-nationals with a clear, predictable pathway to legal status and citizenship. According to Antigua News Room, she made the remarks during the Senate debate on the Immigration and Passport (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
Senator Parker stated that the Opposition supports the principle of regularising the status of long-term residents. However, she argued that the legislation fails to address fundamental weaknesses in the country's immigration framework, leaving thousands of law-abiding, long-contributing residents vulnerable to recurring political amnesties rather than offering them durable legal certainty.
"People who have worked, raised families, paid taxes, built businesses and contributed to our society deserve a fair, transparent and dignified process, not a system where their future depends on periodic political favors and amnesties," she said.
Senator Parker questioned why, after more than a decade in office, the Government continues to rely on immigration amnesties rather than pursuing lasting, humane reforms that would give non-nationals greater opportunities.
"Amnesties should be exceptional. When they become recurring features of immigration policy, they signal that the system itself has become something else," she said.
She also highlighted what she described as a troubling contradiction in Government policy. The Senator pointed out that the same administration had previously doubled immigration extension fees and other charges for non-nationals, making it more costly and difficult for many people to maintain lawful status.
"Now it presents itself as compassionate by offering another amnesty on the eve of an election. Parliament is entitled to ask whether Government is solving a problem that its own harsh policies helped to create," Senator Parker said.
She called on the Government to disclose how many persons became undocumented because of rising fees, how many lost legal status due to administrative delays, how many were affected because employers failed to renew work permits, how many applications remain pending from previous regularisation exercises, and how many persons continue to live in uncertainty despite repeated promises of reform.
Senator Parker also raised concerns that the Bill grants the Executive excessive discretionary power without sufficient procedural safeguards.
"No person's future should depend solely on ministerial discretion. Every applicant should have the right to written reasons, an independent appeal, and a decision within a reasonable period. Immigration should be administered according to law and transparently, not political convenience," she said.
Among the reforms she proposed were a clear statutory pathway from regularisation to permanent residence and citizenship, independent appeal rights, protection for applicants from deportation while their cases are under consideration, mandatory parliamentary reporting on the operation of the amnesty programme, and safeguards to protect migrant workers from exploitation by non-compliant employers.
Senator Parker stressed that the debate should not be framed as one of Antiguans and Barbadians against non-nationals, accusing the Labour Party of using that divisive political playbook.
"This is about the kind of country we want to be. A confident nation does not govern through uncertainty or fear. It governs through fairness, transparency and respect for the dignity of every person who lawfully contributes to its development," she said.
The Senator concluded by urging the Government to reduce the cost of amnesty applications and to move beyond temporary political measures in favour of comprehensive immigration reform.
"Antigua and Barbuda needs an immigration system that is principled, predictable and humane. We should not ask people to spend years building their lives here only to leave them dependent on periodic political amnesties. We owe them something better — a fair and lawful path to belonging," Senator Parker said.
