National

FNM Leader: “The Bill Can’t Be Patched, It Must be Rewritten”

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – FNM leader Michael Pintard told reporters if elected, his administration would repeal the legislation of the Smuggling bill 2025.

Published

6 days ago

December 10, 2025

Delvardo Emmanuel

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Pushback is showing no signs of slowing down, and critics continue to slam the Davis administration’s newly passed smuggling of migrants bill 2025.

The government defends it as a critical border-security tool, but the opposition insists it’s deeply flawed.

Outside the house of assembly today, FNM leader Michael Pintard told reporters if elected, his administration would repeal the legislation.

Michael Pintard – Leader, Free National Movement

“ It’s nonsense. again, they are not working on behalf of the bahamian people. i’m not the issue. the issue is the suffering that the bahamian people are experiencing, the broken, uh, systems that we have that they’re not prepared to correct.”

That’s the response from Opposition Leader Michael Pintard.

He’s continuing to push back against the Davis administration’s claim that he is not a true leader after the Free National Movement signaled it would repeal the smuggling of migrants bill if elected in the upcoming general election.

Lawmakers in the House of Assembly passed the Smuggling of migrants bill 2025 on Monday.

It’s a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at clamping down on organized human-smuggling networks operating in and around Bahamian waters.

But not before the government faced strong pushback over one of the most controversial provisions in the legislation: section 11, which deals with immunity from prosecution for smuggled migrants.

While that clause has since been removed, Pintard maintains the bill is still not suitable.

Originally tabled in October, the legislation aims to strengthen border security, reduce human smuggling activity in The Bahamas, and close existing gaps within the current legislative framework.

However, Pintard questions the government’s true intentions.

Michael Pintard – Leader, Free National Movement

“note that the bill doesn’t deal with bad actors in our system in a, to a large extent. are they concerned about bad actors during the system? have they identified what’s broken in the immigration apparatus in general and how they intend to fix it? no, they have not directed their attention to those, and we wonder why.”

The opposition also insists the Davis administration should’ve never tabled the bill without proper public consultation.

Michael Pintard – Leader, Free National Movement

“They should have looked at the trafficking in persons act, the proceeds of crime act, the immigration act, and they should have come to parliament with, uh, with an, with, again, a bill that took into consideration all of what we needed to, uh, adjust in that suite of, of, uh, legislation. they have not done that. so it, we wonder what their motivation is.”