Antigua’s government has reacted defiantly to new threats from the Trump administration to restrict travel for nationals of countries that sell golden passports and citizenship to foreigners for cash, saying the federation with Barbuda would do all in its power to protect the program.

Antigua Minister of Foreign Affairs Chet Greene told reporters on Monday that credible people run the nation’s Citizenship By Investment scheme (CIP) and properly conduct due diligence for applicants applying for a local passport and citizenship in exchange for a minimum cash investment of $230,000.

Information from a leaked memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio named St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, and St. Lucia as CARICOM member nations whose citizens can be punished by travel bans or restrictions if improvements are not made to the CIP. The US and other Western nations are adamant that these small island nations, which are cashing in on millions from the program, lack the ability to properly probe the backgrounds of applicants, allegations most deny.

“We will not be bullied. Our foreign policy is one of principle. They want to impose travel restrictions on us — for what reason, God only knows,” he said, contending that the government would be “fighting like hell. We know that Charmaine Donovan, CEO of the CIU, and her staff are all people of impeccable character,” he said. “This nation’s integrity is not to be questioned where their work is concerned.”

The Caribbean nations have 60 days to prove their programs do not threaten US security. Greene also said that authorities have not received any formal or official notice from Washington about possible travel sanctions. The CIP was first introduced in 2013 in Antigua and is now the primary source of state revenue alongside tourism and financial services.

Like Minister Chet Greene, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has also said that no official information has been sent to the region, as officials are only aware of reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets.

In meetings earlier this year with Rubio both in the region and in Washington, the two sides raised a number of concerns about the Trump administration’s ever-changing policy issues, including travel restrictions linked to the Cuban medical brigade program. Regional leaders say they were assured that continued dialogue would address pressing and controversial issues.

Governments, mainly in the Eastern Caribbean sub-grouping, have turned to the golden passport program in the past decade to replace lost revenues from intra-regional free trade, the collapse of the banana export regime to the European Union, and other systems that had brought in state revenues. For most of those, including Grenada – which is not on the list – the CIP is now the primary foreign exchange earner and financier for major development projects.