By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

📰 National Perspective Belize

www.nationalalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Tuesday 21st October 2025

EDITORIAL

Today, behind closed doors in Belmopan, the Briceño Administration crossed a line that may haunt Belize for generations. Without a single public consultation, without parliamentary debate, and without disclosing the full terms to the people it governs, the Government of Belize has signed an agreement with the United States to become its "Safe Third Country."

The ink is now dry on a deal that allows the U.S. to send asylum seekers—rejected or diverted from their borders—to Belize, a nation struggling with poverty, high cost of living, and crumbling public services.

The signing was done by Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Katharine Beamer. But it is the Belizean people who will pay the price.

🧨 No Debate. No Transparency. No Respect.

As Opposition Leader Tracy Panton rightfully pointed out in her statement today, this agreement was entered into without consultation, without legislative vetting, and without informing the Belizean people of the risks, costs, or obligations.

“This agreement, by its very nature, could reshape Belize's immigration and asylum systems, impose new financial burdens on taxpayers, and raise serious questions about national sovereignty and security.”

— Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

The government’s official press release spoke of "safeguards" and "veto power." But what it did not say is how a country already overwhelmed by housing shortages, skyrocketing utility bills, and underfunded hospitals will absorb the consequences of hosting even a few hundred asylum seekers.

What it did not say is how many Belizeans had any say in this decision.

And what it certainly didn’t say is that this is the latest example of Belize being used and abused as a convenient vessel for U.S. foreign policy.

💡 International Law Is Not a Substitute for National Readiness

The Briceño government argues that this agreement is “in keeping with humanitarian law.” But good intentions on paper mean little when the reality on the ground is crisis-level poverty and resource scarcity.

How can we welcome strangers when:

• A basket of groceries that cost $40 in 2020 now costs $150.
• Single mothers are still waiting for land and homes while the government builds handpicked units for political loyalists?
• Patients at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital are sent away with prescriptions they can’t afford, because pharmacies are chronically empty?

How can we process and care for foreign asylum seekers when our own youth remain jobless, our school systems are overcrowded, and our national minimum wage promise has yet to materialize?

This is not a humanitarian triumph. It is an abdication of national responsibility.

🇧🇿 This Is Not Partnership. This Is Subservience.

The United States has long talked about “partnership” with Belize. But this deal shows that real partnership is a myth when one nation holds the purse and the other must nod to survive.

This is not about mutual benefit. It is about outsourcing America's migration problem to a dependent nation too poor to say no.

It is not an “agreement” between equals. It is a transaction born of imbalance, with the Briceño Administration offering Belize’s sovereignty in exchange for vague promises of technical assistance and financial support.

📣 The People Must Speak Now

Let it be remembered that this agreement was not done in our name.

We were not consulted.

We were not informed.

We were not invited to the table.

Belize is not a refugee warehouse.

Belizeans are not second-class citizens in their own land.

And this government no longer acts in good faith when it keeps the people in the dark on matters of national consequence.

The Briceño-Fonseca government may have signed the paper.

But we, the people, will carry the burden.

✊ Final Word: From Dependency to Dignity

Enough is enough.

This is not how a sovereign nation conducts foreign policy. This is how a dependent client state is instructed what to do.

If this is the “leadership” of the People’s United Party—signing international agreements in secret and selling Belizean dignity for favors—then Belize needs a new path forward.

Let the Senate hear our voices before ratification.

Let the media expose every clause of this deal.

Let the people decide what future we will accept.

Because this is our Belize, not theirs to trade away.