Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., raised the possibility of putting the Turks and Caicos Islands on the State Department's "Do Not Travel" advisory list for refusing to release five Americans who were said to have minor amounts of ammunition in their luggage.
Mullin, appearing Friday on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," said he did not want to see the islands suffer as a result of government actions, but said putting them on the list is an option to counter the new law that resulted in the arrests.
"Turks and Caicos is a territory of Great Britain," he said. "They're sovereign. They're able to govern themselves in this law that they passed that is now scooping up Americans. It was a reaction because of gang violence that's been overflowing from Haiti into Turks and Caicos. So, they have a zero gun policy with zero ammunition.
"In this case, these five Americans combined had less than 20 bullets among themselves and no gun. No weapon. They averaged three bullets a piece that were loose. Somehow the TSA didn't catch it. They were allowed into the country, and as they were leaving after their vacation, they were scooped up because of the ammunition, and now they're facing 12 years in prison."
Mullin said putting the Turks and Caicos on the Do Not Travel list would have a major impact. He said more than 60% of the Turks and Caicos' income is from tourism, and 90% of that is from the U.S.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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