Turks and Caicos’ top official hit back Thursday at U.S. lawmakers, slamming the Caribbean nation’s arrests of five American tourists accused in separate incidents of having bullets mixed in with their vacation luggage.

Premier Charles Washington Misick directed most of his ire at Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, Pennsylvania Republican, who accused the archipelago’s government of targeting Americans with its gun laws that require violators to serve at least 12 years behind bars.

“The accusations of Congressman Guy Reschenthaler against the government and people of the Turks and Caicos Islands are nothing more than diabolic falsehoods. And Mr. Speaker, it’s an abomination even unto God Himself,” Mr. Misick said during Thursday’s House of Assembly meeting.

The five Americans were arrested during their respective trips to the Turks and Caicos over the past five months. Local laws treat illegal ammunition possession as harshly as they do illegal gun possession.

The Turks and Caicos’ premier said over one million Americans visit the popular vacation destination each year, and none of its laws are meant to disproportionately victimize U.S. citizens.

The Caribbean official was responding to Mr. Reschenthaler’s comments made Wednesday during a House Committee on Appropriations hearing.

The Pennsylvania Republican was hammering Secretary of State Antony Blinken for allowing the American detainees to be treated “atrociously” by the Turks and Caicos government.

“This is not even a sovereign nation,” Mr. Reschenthaler said. “It’s a protectorate of the British Empire or the UK and you can’t tell me that you can’t put a ‘do-not-travel’ today on Turks and Caicos and bring the four Americans that still remain in Turks and Caicos home. It would take one order to bring four Americans home.”

Mr. Misick explained Thursday that the gun laws revised in 2022 — which increased mandatory minimum sentences from seven to 12 years — were done in response to an “unprecedented spike in violent gun crimes.”

He went on to say it was a threat to the national economy that’s powered by tourism.

“We would have been derelict in our duties not to look at strengthening our legislation to protect our people and the Turks and Caicos’ reputation as one of the safest places in the world,” Mr. Misick said.

He said 310 people were arrested on gun-related charges, including possession of ammunition, from January 2018 to May 15, 2024.

Mr. Misick said that the law applied evenly and that “no special carveout should be made for any particular group of persons.”

He also noted that the severity of punishment in any particular case is ultimately up to judges. 

The law allows judges to hand down a custodial sentence and a fine “that are fair and just” when certain cases meet “exceptional circumstances,” according to the governor’s office of Turks and Caicos.  

Americans arrested for carrying loose ammunition include Michael Lee Evans, 72, of Texas; Bryan Hagerich, 40, of Pennsylvania; Ryan Watson, 40, of Oklahoma; Tyler Wenrich, 31, of Virginia and Sharitta Grier, 45, of Florida.

Hagerich, who previously pleaded guilty to his crimes after being arrested in February, will be sentenced Friday.

Wenrich pleaded guilty Tuesday following his April arrest. He’ll be sentenced next month.

Evans, who was first arrested in December and pleaded guilty this spring, will also learn his fate in June.

Mr. Watson was arrested in April and has not yet entered a plea, nor has Ms. Grier, who was arrested on May 13. Her next court date is in July.

A bipartisan U.S. delegation led by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, visited with Turks and Caicos officials Monday to see if there could be any leniency granted for the accidental ammo packing.

U.S. politicians came away from the meeting with mixed feelings, with Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, expressing optimism, while Rep. Michael Cloud, Texas Republican, telling News Nation they received no clear answers from the nation’s leadership.

The Americans still awaiting their fate remain in limbo. Ms. Grier told CBS News she was jailed for a few days after a couple of bullets were detected in her luggage.

“They chained me to a chair by my leg,” she said. “It’s cold. Scared. It was awful. It was so awful. I couldn’t sleep, no peace. A nightmare.”

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.