It has been widely reported that the USA has frozen immigrant visa processing for nationals of various countries, including most Caricom nations. The claimed rationale is to target nationals who are at higher risk of claiming benefits in the USA, although this does not stop the inclusion on the list of some of the more affluent small Caricom countries, such as Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, and Saint Kitts.
There are no British Overseas Territories (BOTs) on the list, despite the proximity to the USA for BOTs like Bermuda, Cayman, BVI, Anguilla and Montserrat. It is likely that BOTs manage to escape the ban because their citizens largely possess British citizenship, and so it might present logistical challenges to determine who is a citizen of such places. Dutch islands, like Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, are also absent from the list, perhaps similarly because their citizens would tend to possess Dutch citizenship.
Diplomacy might also play a role in which countries were or were not included on the list.