GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Monday July 5, 2010 – People living illegally in the Cayman Islands have until the beginning of next month to get out of the country, without fear of being prosecuted. If they don’t, they’ll be sought out and will feel the full weight of the law. That’s the message from the government as a one-month amnesty began in the British Overseas Territory on July 1st. Signs have been posted in public places across the country announcing the prosecution-free amnesty period. “I urge those who are in a position to take advantage of this amnesty to do so. Those who forego this opportunity will be making a serious error of judgment and can expect to face serious consequences,” Chief Immigration Officer Linda Evans said in commenting on the amnesty. After August 1st, the government said, the Immigration Department and other law enforcements agencies will actively pursue those persons who have not taken advantage of the amnesty and are continuing to commit immigration offences. “Such persons will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and deportation will be recommended where appropriate,†it said. The maximum penalty for overstaying is a fine of CI$20,000 (US$16,000) and imprisonment of up to five years, while the penalties for work permit offences range from fines between CI$5,000 (US$4,000) and CI$15,000 (US$12,000) and imprisonment of up to one year. Employers will also have a role to play in this amnesty period.
They may cancel work permits for employees for whom they have no work without fear of prosecution and the affected employees would have to leave the country. Similarly, persons who are employed on a valid work permit but whose employers no longer have full-time employment for them may cancel their work permit and leave Cayman Islands before the expiry of the amnesty without fear of prosecution. “Every day we hear countless complaints about immigration offences being committed and the effect that this has on our Territory.
This is a golden opportunity for Caymanian employers to play a part in reducing immigration crime in their country and I expect that they will act responsibly and turn in work permits for employees that they no longer can provide work for,†Evans noted. The immigration chief also warned that Caymanians who offer illegal aliens jobs or housing will also face consequences if they are caught after the amnesty.
I want to thank the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the United States’ approach to international migration policy and to discuss these critical issues with experts in the field. I appreciate the invitation from MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou, Vice President Don Kerwin, and Kathleen Newland.
I am especially honored to appear with my friend Doris Meissner, also of MPI, who is a dedicated and seasoned expert on these matters. And thanks, too, to the Catholic Immigration Network and Georgetown Law Center for hosting us. Finally, I want to thank my colleagues in the Office of International Migration in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration for collaborating so closely with me on the words I’m about to offer.
It’s important to consider that when we talk about international migration policy, we are in many respects referring to an array of national practices that apply to citizens and non-citizens who cross borders.
Thus, international migration policy largely reflects the effort, by the United States and other governments, to develop common principles, approaches and initiatives with respect to those national practices. And while it’s not immigration policy, our views on domestic immigration policy certainly inform the effort to develop these common principles, approaches and initiatives with other governments, and our views of what other governments should be doing should certainly inform our approaches to our own domestic practices and law.
In fact, it was only over the past two decades or so that the Department of State recognized international migration as a distinct area of policy focus. In 1993, the Department created the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) out of the Bureau of Refugee Programs, and international migration was an issue of growing importance. Civil wars in Central America and the collapse of the Soviet Union had led to large movements of people and questions about how they should be treated from a policy and legal standpoint. With large-scale migrations of foreign policy importance, issues like human trafficking and other abuses of migrants also came to the fore. And with these events, the Department began to chart a policy and develop a range of programs that articulated and promoted our perspectives on international migration.
And this is as it should be, given the critical role that migration has played in our nation’s history. A huge percentage of the world’s migrants have ultimately found themselves in the United States. Indeed, our country has been built on immigration, and our national political leadership – whether Democrat or Republican – has continually articulated the view that immigration has made enormous contributions to our cultural diversity and richness, and to our economic growth and development. To be sure, perspectives on the economic impacts of immigration do vary. But positive views of those impacts are supported by analyses suggesting that due in some measure to immigration, the United States has largely been spared some of the troubling demographic trends that have bedeviled – and will continue to impact – the fiscal systems of other advanced industrialized countries that have been less hospitable to immigrants.
In articulating our approach to international migration over the years, the State Department has noted the U.S. effort to promote legal, humane and orderly migration, emphasizing the importance of family unification, appropriate treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers, assistance and protection to vulnerable migrants such as trafficking victims and stateless persons, and regional dialogues on international migration to promote the policy objectives I’ve just mentioned.
We have also supported migration management efforts, asserting that there is no necessary conflict between enforcement, on the one hand, and protection and inclusion, on the other.
PRM has supported a wide range of programs on every continent to increase the ability of countries to manage their borders in a humane way, provide assistance to vulnerable migrants, especially those trafficked for sexual or labor exploitation, and increase cooperation among countries.
Our foremost international partner in addressing migration has been – and continues to be – the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), another major partner for our Bureau, IOM grew out of the crises of refugees and displacement in Europe at the end of World War II.
The programs we have been supporting, mostly in partnership with IOM, have been solid, even imaginative, and have produced concrete benefits for a large number of vulnerable migrants over the past years. But as the number of small, discrete projects grew to nearly fifty, we have felt a need to sharpen our focus and develop a more targeted strategy, and to capture both in a clear and concise statement of mission.
In the effort to sharpen our focus, we are not operating in a vacuum. Echoing many of the sentiments of their predecessors, Democrat and Republican, both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have provided us with valuable guidance on how we might proceed. President Obama has reaffirmed that we are a nation of immigrants enriched by our diversity, and the Secretary of State has stressed the critical importance of support for vulnerable populations, including populations in transit. In addition, as recently as earlier this month when she released the 10th Annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the Secretary reminded us that we must ensure that our domestic policies live up to ideals we often promote to others.
So we’ve given considerable thought in our Bureau about how we ought to characterize our overall policy and program mission in these critical areas. Let me offer our preliminary thinking about such a statement, with the caveat that we’re still honing in on an exact formulation.
In essence, we will seek to promote safe, humane and orderly international migration policies and practices, which play a critical role in supporting family unification, advancing development in both countries of origin and destination, enriching the cultures of host countries, encouraging cooperation between states, safeguarding human rights and ensuring stability and security, and we will seek to ensure that the policies and practices we implement and advocate to others uphold international protection principles.
In pursuit of these objectives, we will narrow our capacity building and direct assistance programs to focus on about eight critical geographic regions where migration flows raise critical humanitarian and protection concerns. We also anticipate complementing this project focus with policy engagement and advocacy.
We believe that this more narrow orientation will enhance the overall policy impact of our work, and also have more of an effect on the process of creating best international migration practices.
In Africa, that means a focus on the Gulf of Aden, from the Horn of Africa and East Africa toward the Middle East. It also means focusing on movements from sub-Saharan Africa into North Africa and onward toward Europe; and, finally, on flows to and through Southern Africa.
In the Gulf of Aden, hundreds of people drown each year, when overloaded boats capsize or smugglers throw migrants overboard to avoid detention or prevent sinking; in parts of North Africa, vulnerable migrants are without access to asylum procedures and subject to detention and deportation; and in Southern Africa, they often experience robbery, rape and other forms of violence and exploitation.
In Southeast Asia, we will focus efforts to promote the protection of highly vulnerable migrants – victims of trafficking, minors, stateless persons and others – who are often part of broader economically driven migration flows, and we will concentrate on areas where abuses appear to be most prevalent.
In the Middle East, we plan to concentrate on Iraqi migrants living in neighboring countries who are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. In addition, we anticipate policy engagement and advocacy on irregular migration in the broader region.
And in the Americas, we will focus on two sets of migration flows that present significant protection concerns: the Caribbean, with an emphasis on irregular migration flows, and parts of Latin America that are experiencing new large-scale inflows of migrants and asylum seekers from other regions of the world. In this respect, for example, we recently received a request from a country in Central America to assist in the voluntary repatriation of victims of human trafficking who were stranded, with no resources to get home.
In each of these areas of focus, our programs and our engagement with international organizations and national and local authorities will be designed, first, to build the capacity of governments to manage issues humanely and responsibly; second, to provide direct assistance to vulnerable migrants; third, to link capacity building and assistance to broader regional cooperation on best practices; and fourth, support efforts by IOM and UNHCR to coordinate effectively so that vulnerable migrants do not fall through the cracks.
Beyond a new mission statement and a sharpened program focus, we are working very hard to ensure that, with respect to international migration, we practice at home what we preach abroad.
I was in Bangkok earlier this month, meeting with senior Thai foreign policy officials and discussing with them the treatment of the Rohingya, a stateless minority ethnic group in Burma. Many Rohingya have fled over the past many years toward Thailand, Malaysia, and elsewhere in the region to escape persecution. In early 2009, when a group of sea-bound Rohingya reached Thai waters, the Rohingya were given some food and water, but they and their boats were pushed back out to sea. When I urged the official to ensure against any such actions in the future, I was asked about U.S. government treatment of asylum-seekers rescued at sea.
It was a fair question.
And while our interdiction policies have certainly been subject to critical assessment by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and others, it was very important that I was able to assure my Thai interlocutor that the U.S. Coast Guard, day in and day out, meets a solemn obligation to rescue people at sea, provide them with food and other assistance, and ensure their safe disposition. It was also very significant that I could tell my counterpart that individuals rescued at sea in the Caribbean have an opportunity to voice protection concerns, and I described for him our process for addressing these issues.
To be sure, the risk of large-scale and irregular migration requires smart migration management measures, including effective law enforcement, but that imperative must coincide with the vindication of protection objectives.
And we can make those points more effectively to our friends overseas if we are respecting protection principles in our own policies. In fact, with this objective very much in mind, we in the Department of State are reviewing our efforts to ensure protection of individuals interdicted at sea, and will be discussing these issues with our colleagues in other parts of the government.
To increase the effectiveness of these kinds of initiatives, we are also reaching out to partners in other agencies of government. I have begun to meet regularly with Alejandro Majorkas, the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on a wide variety of international migration and protection issues that jointly impact domestic and foreign policy. This year, the U.S. Government, led by PRM and USCIS, will chair the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees – which, as many of you know, is a key intergovernmental forum on migration issues. We have chosen to explore the theme of Humanitarian Responses to Crises with Migration Consequences. We are also working closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies in preparation for the Global Forum on Migration and Development, taking place this November in Mexico.
And, of course, our partnerships are not limited to DHS colleagues, and include agencies such as the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services as well as the White House.
Within the Administration, the Department of Homeland Security has the leading role with respect to domestic immigration law and reform. But our domestic practices often define our approaches on international migration issues, and have major foreign policy implications. This has been clearly evident in the strong and negative reaction by our friends and allies to the recent immigration legislation enacted by the Arizona legislature. And it underscores the importance of the international migration work at the Department of State and our contributions to the broad discussion of these critical issues.
Finally, let me address the migration-related elements of PRM’s response to the Haiti earthquake. Our response reflects an additional area of program emphasis: the need to be opportunistic in filling migration-related gaps in responses to key foreign policy challenges. Immediately following the earthquake, the U.S. government initiated a broad, multi-agency humanitarian response, but the bulk of the initial response effort was focused on the most heavily impacted areas near Port-au-Prince.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Haitians were crossing the border with the Dominican Republic to seek medical treatment or to join friends and family. Through IOM and other organizations, we have supported important projects focused on the vulnerable populations at or near the border – to include counseling, assisted voluntary return, healthcare and non-food items such as blankets, kitchen items, and hygiene kits. This gap-filling role taps the migration expertise of our bureau, and serves as a model for future responses.
Moreover, it is consistent with our overall goal of ensuring that our future migration policy and program efforts have greater policy impact, and therefore more effectively enhance the quality of life for people in transit.
That, it seems to me is, is an appropriate and noble goal for international migration policy. Thank you.
Source: U.S. Department of State
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Filing for refugee status in Canada makes no sense as chances are you would not be successful.
That’s according to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves who has encouraged Vincentians to stop filing for refugee status in Canada as by so doing, the country is being given a bad name.
Dr. Gonsalves, speaking recently said that persons go to Canada and overstay their time and then in his opinion, waste their money on lawyers by applying for refugee status saying things like they are being politically victimised.
“Canadian people are not foolish they know the world and they can see when you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes,†stressed Dr. Gonsalves.
A Guyanese man living legally in the US who was ordered to leave the country by an immigration court following three convictions has won a reprieve following a decision by a US Appeals Court.
The Appeal Court overturned the decision and ordered that the case be retried because the lower court among other things had relied on unproven and disputed allegations in making its decision.
Justice Jed S. Rakoff on February 19 last in his ruling said that Andrew Aswald Padmore demonstrated that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) improperly found facts which it held to be “significant†and “important to its decision denying him relief and as such “remanding [the case] to the agency would not be futile. Remand is therefore required.â€
According to the court documents Padmore entered the US in 1989 as a lawful permanent resident but since his arrival he has been arrested on three occasions. In 1996 he was arrested and charged with selling marijuana to an undercover police officer and he pled guilty to criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth degree in violation of New York Penal Law.
At the trial that led to his first conviction Padmore had testified before the immigration judge that he was arrested while attempting to “purchase some marijuana for [his] own use.â€
In 2001, Padmore was arrested again and charged with criminal possession of marijuana, more than four ounces of cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and a loaded 45-calibre firearm. In 2002, in satisfaction of the charges he pled guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. The documents said that before the immigration judge he testified he had never used cocaine, had not possessed a weapon and was arrested based on a mistaken identification.
He explained that at the time of his second arrest he was in another person’s house and was not aware of “what was in the guy’s house.â€
Padmore was arrested again in 2007 for violating conditions of his probation. The arrest was triggered by his visit to the house of the mother of his two eldest children. When Padmore appeared before a state court judge, the judge suspected that he was using illegal drugs.
However, the charges were dismissed without prejudice and he later told the immigration judge during his deportation hearing that his behaviour during that court proceeding was attributed to high blood pressure.
In June 2007 he was issued with a notice to appear before a court for removal and during the hearing he admitted to all the allegations, except the 2002 conviction for criminal possession of cocaine. Padmore refused to admit that he was convicted on possession of cocaine and the immigration judge relied on the conviction document of record, which is a printout from an unidentified database maintained by the New Your State Division of Criminal Justice Services. It was based on the two convictions the judge concluded that Padmore was removable as charged. However, the man applied for cancellation of removal which the immigration judge granted since he deemed Padmore statutorily eligible for relief and determined that he warranted an affirmative exercise of discretion.
This decision was appealed by the Board of Immigrations Appeal (BIA) and the immigration judge’s decision was overturned and Padmore then appealed.
The case will now have to be heard again.
One of the pillars of the United States Constitution is the right to free speech. Yet what happens when a lawful immigrant voices an opinion that does not agree with the groups protesting Arizona’s new immigration law? Is that immigrant’s right to free speech celebrated, or is he attacked as if he were a traitor?
Enrique Meléndez is proud of his heritage from El Salvador. With a grandfather who was once the President of El Salvador, and numerous family members still in that country, he holds a special spot in his heart for the place of his birth. But several years ago, he became an American citizen and has a fiercely protective love for his adopted country.
Involved in both private and governmental international affairs for decades, Meléndez has a firsthand knowledge of sensitive immigration issues. His attitude towards the immigration bill known as SB 1070, which was recently passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by Governor Jan Brewer, is that it is a necessary step towards protecting the sovereignty of Arizona and the United States.
(Editor’s note: The video Meléndez refers to is at WSBTV.com, called, “Channel 2 Investigates U.S. Border Security Part 1.”)
Meléndez Comments During Caborca Sister City Meeting Invoke Sharp Response
Meléndez also expressed his views during a recent meeting of the Prescott Caborca Sister City organization, of which he was a member at that time. Although he was applauded during the meeting, what happened next caused him to immediately withdraw his membership from the group. He sent out an email which read:
“After careful thought, I have decided to resign from the Caborca /Prescott Sister Committee effective immediately.
There are several reasons for this decision which I will outline below:
“Arizona state law SB-1070 has created an unnecessary amount of emotional turmoil, stress and disrespect to the United States of America by the illegal Mexican community not only in our State but throughout our country.
“As I stated at the 5/13/10 Caborca meeting which was held at the City of Prescott Library, the country of El Salvador has had for many years the policy of “migration through the legal constraints” and it does not, I repeat does not, encourage and or support illegal immigration.
“I have absolutely zero compassion for illegal Mexicans who cross Arizona borders and demand health care from our State … this is one of the areas where the State of California became harshly economically effected during the time my family lived in that area.
“As I stated at the Caborca meeting, Mexico has regular Army troops stationed at their Southern border with Guatemala and it has been documented with OAS that these troops rape the women from South, Central America and the Caribbean, mutilate the men and kidnap the children who are often placed into prostitution rings.
“Hypocrisy is the only word that can best describe Mexicans with the illegal “invasion” that has taken place in the Southwestern states during the last few years!!!
“The latest incident which provoked me to write this letter took place last night in Los Angeles prior to the Lakers-Suns game at the Staples arena.
“Large crowds of Mexican illegals had our American flag upside down with a swastica imprinted on the face of our flag and stomping on our colors… some had the four letter word ‘—- the USA!’
“I am hopeful that the men and women who are serving our country and who had loved ones sacrifice their precious lives during the past conflicts and wars will again stand up and denounce the denigration of our flag.
“Finally, I received a call from an unknown number insulting me for the presentation I made at the Caborca meeting. The comments were “you brought shame on your country and the Hispanic community by disparaging the Mexican Government and Mexican people – after all , you’re just a rich guy.”
“For the record, I am writing this memo as a member of the Caborca/Sister City Committee [former as of the writing of this memo], a City of Prescott home owner and a very proud American who took 5 years to become an American citizen.”
The “Houseboys” Speak Out
Meléndez is not the only local immigrant that has attracted the disdain of those with opposing viewpoints. In this video, Quang Nguyen, founder of the Patriot Network, and Dwayne LeSassier respond to an incident in which they were dubbed the “houseboys of the Tea Party”:
The comments left afterwards by a person identified only as “powhack1″ were revealing:
“If you think you are seen as equals, good for you, dream worlds are happy worlds… Just for the record I dont just think the tea Party men are white illiberal, [sic] I think the woman are too.”
“Quang: You first used the term master, not me, your inferiority complex is showing, fyi.”
Those entering the United States illegally typically have little or no knowledge of the U.S. Constitution. Yet, as part of the process to become a naturalized citizen, according to the document titled, “Pathway to U.S. Citizenship,” put out by the United States Immigration and Customs Services, applicants must, “Demonstrate an attachment to the principles and ideals of the U.S. Constitution.”
Nguyen is well aware of those principles and ideals. Daily he soldiers on, continuing to produce the videos for The Patriot Network, undeterred in his resolve.
“I fully support SB 1070, as a non-white legal immigrant,” Nguyen writes in an email. “You can check my ID all day long, sister!!!”
THE United States will be increasing visa fees worldwide, including Jamaica, effective Friday June 4.
All persons whose interviews fall on or after that date must pay the new fees. Applicants with interviews scheduled for June 4 and who have already paid according to the old fee schedule must now return to NCB to pay the difference for their applications to be processed.
Under the new fees petition-based visas cost more than non-petition based visas.
New fee scehdule:
Non-petition-based visas:
* Visitor (B1/B2) US$140
* Crewmember (C1/D) US$140
* Student visas (F1 and M1) US$140
* Treaty Trader/Investor (E1 or E2) US$390
Petition-based visas:
* Temporary skilled workers (H-1B) US$150
* Temporary seasonal workers (H-2B) US$150
* Intra-company transferees (L1) US$150
* Performers (O and P) US$150
* Fiancé-based visas (K) US$350
A release from the US Embassy said that that the increased fees were necessary, “to better reflect the actual cost of providing services”. It said that until now only 94 per cent of costs were recovered by visa fees, with the monthly US$5.4 million shortfall being borne by the US taxpayer
Although the treaty trader (E1) and treaty investor (E2) visa classes are not petition-based, they will now be set at US$390 to reflect the real cost of processing document-intensive visa categories.
For more information visit the US Embassy website: http://kingston.usembassy.gov
He sat placidly in his prison-issue jumpsuit, a sombre
expression fixed on his face as the harsh detention centre lights reflected off his shiny, dark skin, highlighting an old, four-inch scar down the centre of his forehead.
He did not speak. Or even move. He was so still, in fact, the motion-sensitive video camera pointing at him in the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay repeatedly shut off as it failed to detect any movement. It suggested the patience of a man who has, so far, shown remarkable resilience in saying and doing little. He insists his name is Andrea Jerome Walker, born in Wilmington, Del., on Jan. 22, 1973. The governments of Canada and the United States are adamant he is not.
That places him in a bizarre state of limbo: Until officials know who he is, they cannot deport him; until they can deport him, they will not release him. Since Sept. 20, 2006, he has been in jail, so far serving the equivalent of a manslaughter sentence, although he is charged with no crime. And there is no end in sight. He is the unknown man.
“Subject has no family anywhere in the world. There is no one who knows him and no one would be able to vouch for him,” says an internal government report on his case. “He claims to be entirely alone in this world.”
Canadian officials have twice sent his fingerprints to Haiti seeking his identity. They have asked officials in Angola, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Guinea for help. A Nigerian diplomat visited him in jail, asking him trick questions. U.S. Homeland Security officials searched yearbooks, mug shots and government databases.
None of it has helped.
When given the chance to plead his case with an interested reporter visiting him in prison last week, he declined. Clearly he is no Hurricane Carter, anxious to get word of his ridiculous predicament to the outside world.
Instead, he seems content to sit in his cell, behind coils of razor wire, high fences and towering spotlights with no end in sight.
The stakes are high. Immigration officials fear letting him out will encourage others to adopt a similarly defiant stance. If he is released and not deported it will make a mockery of Canada’s immigration law.
From Mr. Walker’s perspective, his imprisonment is a travesty of justice, a Kafka-esque, indefinite incarceration without evidence of any crime; mixed with the outrage of being stripped of an identity and citizenship he insists is his.
Then there is another concern.
If he is not who he says he is, then what fate does he fear – should his true identity be revealed – that makes wasting away in a crowded jail such a palatable alternative? What awaits him if his identity is discovered?
What might he have done?
Mr. Walker – as the government continues to call him despite declaring he is not really Mr. Walker – arrived in Canada from New York as a visitor in April 2005. He carried a U.S. passport and was told at the border to leave within nine days.
Instead, he lived here quietly until, in September 2006, he was approached in downtown Toronto by two police officers on bicycles.
“They found two little pieces of cocaine in my pocket,” he told an immigration detention review hearing in 2006, back when he was more talkative. “My lawyer told me to plead guilty and then I would go back to the United States.”
The conviction did make him subject to deportation and when Canada Border Services Agency officials arrived to collect him at the police station it seemed a routine case.
But questions about his identity immediately arose. When CBSA officers arrived, Toronto police were already asking Mr. Walker why he looked older than his passport said he was. He said there was a typo and it should say 1963 not 1973, according to a CBSA summary of his case.
When asked why he spoke with a non-American accent, he said his mother was born in Cameroon. When a CBSA officer spoke to him in French, Mr. Walker seemed more fluent than in English, saying he learned French and Spanish during travels abroad.
The more Mr. Walker spoke, the less his story was believed.
A few weeks later, officials from the U.S. consulate in Toronto spent an hour with Mr. Walker in the Don Jail.
“We do not believe him to be a U.S. citizen,” they wrote in a U.S. Department of State memo. They said he spoke with a thick accent, either Caribbean or French sub-Saharan African.
“He claims his mother forced him into alcohol abuse at an early age and then gave him to some woman in New York City to raise. He could only offer the woman’s name being something like ‘Marie’,” the memo says.
He told the Americans he learned French during a visit to France and then, at another point, that he learned it from a Caribbean girlfriend in New York. Her name was also something like “Marie.”
U.S. officials found no record of Mr. Walker prior to 2001 and promptly revoked his passport.
About the only thing everyone agrees on is that he is not a Canadian, but without travel documents or a country of origin CBSA has nowhere to send him.
“They don’t believe that I’m a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Walker complained to the Immigration and Refugee Board, “because everyone says I have a French accent.”
At his first IRB detention review in October 2006, he tried to explain: He grew up “with a woman who was a friend of my mother, a Puerto Rican.
“Even when I was in New York I used to go to church. I study Bible school in Spanish, so that’s why I have a funny accent.” Yet, at another hearing, he said he learned French from his mother.
Such inconsistencies have not helped him. That IRB adjudicators have cited them as reasons for his detention may explain why he stopped talking.
In April 2007, a CBSA officer tried again.
“I offered Mr. Walker a piece of paper to write down his name and date of birth and any other information with which to assist us in returning him to his country of residence,” the officer says in a sworn affidavit.
“I found Mr. Walker to be completely unco-operative.”
At a 2007 IRB hearing, adjudicator Harry Adamidis ruled that Mr. Walker must remain behind bars, saying: “You have been detained a very, very long time, and also at this point there does not appear to be a solution to allow you to be released sometime in the foreseeable future.
“However, given the fact that you’ve been unco-operative with regards to your identity, I have to agree with the minister that you shouldn’t be rewarded by that with release.”
Before he ran afoul of Canada’s drug laws, little is known about Mr. Walker. He had a troubled early life in Delaware, he said, never knowing his father, and his mother giving him away.
“I went to the Bronx when I was a little boy,” he said at an IRB hearing in 2008. From the age of seven he lived on the streets of New York and never went to school, he said, explaining why he has no family or school records to support his story.
Mr. Walker said he spent several years in the U.S. merchant marine travelling the world, and yet there are no records of him earning an income, joining a union or even of having a passport at that time.
His first request for a U.S. passport in 2001 was denied for lack of documentation. He later returned with more ID cards and was issued a passport in 2002.
“None of these documents is convincing proof of identity and all of them could be obtained on the strength of a borrowed or stolen birth certificate,” a CBSA report says.
According to a records search by the National Post, the address on Mr. Walker’s temporary New York driver’s licence is that of the Door of Salvation Ministries, a Christian-run soup kitchen in the Bronx.
A spokesman at the mission said it was there long before 2001 when Mr. Walker’s ID was issued but could not confirm if anyone with that name ever stayed there.
“I can’t help you, man,” the spokesman said. “I don’t know that name.”
Once he had a passport, Mr. Walker travelled to Spain in 2004 but was returned to the United States under a deportation order after a drug conviction. Shortly after, he came to Canada.
His connection to Christian missions continued. Almost immediately after arriving, he joined the Follower’s Mission, a Christian outreach serving addicts and outcasts in Toronto’s Queen and Sherbourne area, the Post has learned.
He made little impact on staff and his name brings back no memories, said Young Wha Kang, the mission’s founder.
“That was five years ago,” she said, apologizing.
Mr. Walker’s arrest in 2006, that triggered his predicament, took place around the corner from the mission’s front door.
Despite declaring his life for Jesus Christ – “I’m a believer. I’m a Christian,” he told the IRB in 2008 – he has a long history with drugs.
When Canada sent his fingerprints to the United States, officials did find one hit in their system, but it was not for a Mr. Walker. They matched a man arrested for drug possession in New York City in 1993. The name of the man who served the sentence on Rikers Island was Michael Gee Hearns, born in Haiti on Sept. 14, 1966.
Mr. Walker admited he was that convict but said the name was just an alias, derived from “Mike Gee,” an American hip-hop artist.
“I love his music, that’s why I use his name,” Mr. Walker said.
“I never been in Haiti. I don’t even know where Haiti is.”
Even that clue has not helped. Haitian authorities have not been able to identify him, even with a photograph, fingerprints and the alternate name.
In the meantime, CBSA arranged for a specialist with the Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa to interview Mr. Walker. He spent half an hour with him, hoping he would reveal telling details through trick questions.
His assessment? Mr. Walker is definitely from Africa but not from Nigeria. Nor is he from the north or the south of the continent. That leaves a lot of troubled central African nations still in the mix.
Since then, CBSA has asked several African states for help but received no answers.
After three years and eight months of being locked up, Mr. Walker only grunted his acknowledgement to the IRB adjudicator who convened his 52nd detention review earlier this month.
With his 5-foot-7, 170-pound frame slumped in a chair, his only discernible movement over the video-link from jail during the hour-long hearing was the occasional scratch of his nose or rub of his scarred forehead.
The Refugee Law Office, a division of Legal Aid, has taken up his perplexing case, appealing his detention to the Federal Court of Canada.
“I accept the [government's] submissions that [Mr. Walker] is not whom he claims to be and that he has been uncooperative in refusing to reveal his true identity,” Justice Richard G. Mosley ruled last month. However, he also ruled that the length of Mr. Walker’s detention was not adequately taken into account and so he ordered a fresh review.
At that fresh hearing, Karen Stewart, his public defender, argued for Mr. Walker’s release.
“This detention has become indefinite a long, long time ago. There is no prospect of CBSA resolving this,” she said. “Mr. Walker has been consistent over three years that he is a U.S. citizen.
“We are truly at an impasse here.”
IRB adjudicator Andrew Laut ruled Mr. Walker must remain behind bars.
“He is very strongly motivated… not to be removed to his country of origin as he has not yet revealed that country,” said Mr. Laut.
In a bid to break that impasse, CBSA is releasing his photograph and description, seeking help from the public in learning any information about him, including any family members, alternate names, addresses or “any organizations, military or educational institutions” he was associated with.
A CBSA phone line – 905-405-3887 – and email address – walker@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca – has been established to receive tips.
In the meantime, the IRB will assess Mr. Walker’s detention every 30 days. His next hearing is set for June 2, when he will likely seek release yet again.
“Send me back to the States,” Mr. Walker pleaded at a past hearing.
“I’m not going to be in jail all my life.”
by Reynold n. Mason
America has come a long way since the naturalization Act of 1790 took effect, limiting US citizenship to “free white persons†of ‘good moral characterâ€. In spite of that ominous pronouncement, the US has been a magnet for immigrants from nations across the globe. By 1950 the US popuation consisted of 55 million persons of foreign stock. Up to that time, most immigrants, 98 per cent, were Europeans. Today, 50 per cent of immigrants are from Latin America, and 12.5 percent of the US population were foreign born as of 2008,according to the US Census Bureau,
For the first time in our history illegal immigrants outnumber legal immigrants. In a weak economy and with unemployment approaching 10 per cent, immigration, an emotional issue to begin with, has become even more divisive. The need for reform of the country’s immigration laws is nothing less than dire. Yet congress and President Obama are handcuffed by the toxic politics of the issue. To push reform now is to anger conservatives who want more restrictive immigration laws; to fail to do so invites attacks from the left and the real possibility of losing Hispanic votes in the mid-term elections looming on the political horizon. President Obama recognizes this and has said bluntly, that he believed “congress did not have the appetite†to take up immigration reform this year.
But the flood of illegal immigrants, 12 million according to the US Census Bureau, has aroused passions, particularly in border states which have now begun passing laws designed to stem the tide of illegal immigrants by restricting access to driver licenses and other public benefits. The Arizona immigration law in particular, has drawn the ire of proponents of immigration reform, as well as those worried that it would legalize racial profiling. The ACLU has weighed in, filing a challenge to the law in Federal court, and sister states have imposed boycotts on Arizona in protest. Many feel illegal immigrants get undeserved services in short supply that should be reserved for citizens. In tough economic times immigrants are blamed for taking food out of the mouth of Americans because there isn’t enough to go around. Internet chat rooms are abuzz.. Said one comment: “Today I went to a free dental clinic; I was the only one of American descent. I was disgusted because there are too many people entering the country illegally and still being given access to government services such as medical, dental, welfare, housing………â€
Others blame illegal migrants for taking jobs that would otherwise go to American workers. The truth is, most Americans would not work in bloody slaughter houses de-boning chicken, or on farms picking strawberries or lettuce at the wages paid to illegal immigrants. One man said this about his experience: “I worked in the cotton fields at least 8 hours a day 6 days a week in the early 90’s…… there were few blacks ……even fewer white folk and mostly Hispanics. It’s backbreaking labor for little pay……. I can’t see Americans going back to doing that type of work again unless the pay was significantly hireâ€[sic]
Others are unwilling to deal with the changes that immigration has wrought in our daily lives. In some localities, such as Buford and Norcross Georgia, even street signs are in languages unfamiliar to most. People are angry that when seeking customer service they hear a recording commanding them to “press one for Englishâ€. “I can’t stand to see people flying a flag here other than the American flag…. I believe that if you are here as a citizen or resident or whatever, there should be some attempt made to assimilateâ€. That comment on an internet forum yesterday expresses a gripe many have with immigrants.
But America is no longer the homogenous society it once was. Without conscious effort, we have adopted what is best from immigrants. Whether it’s Jamaican jerk chicken, pasta primavera or Hungarian goulash, most Americans have tasted the best cuisine brought to us by immigrants.
We should not expect immigrants to check their “cultural baggage at the golden gate†I feel this passionately. I am a naturalized American citizen of Caribbean stock. Need I turn my back on my Caribbean heritage and refuse to remit American dollars to my family back home? Must I disown Bob Marley and Sparrow or give up rice and peas for burger and fries to prove I’m a true American? I think not. Immigrants have made and re-made this country. A look back at history should put at our minds at ease. The Irish, Germans and Italians have all come, adapted and left their indelible mark on American culture. So too will our new immigrants. Our political leaders should work through this crisis by compromise and with compassion. Those who today advocate closing our borders, should they succeed, would simply sweep the problem under the dirty rug of prejudice. It will be less visible, but it will “fester like a sore†Enforcement will stifle immigration, but like Jim Crow or apartheid, it will not make it go away. To borrow the words of an anonymous internet comment: “I don’t see what’s so wrong about people having pride in their roots…I would sometimes be annoyed when I see a Puerto Rican flag in someone’s rear view mirror. But I come to respect and understand the pride that one has in their heritage… the great thing about America is that rest of us came from somewhere else first…†. Well said Annonymous.
BASSETERRE, St Kitts — On Saturday 15 May, INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald Noble held an historic meeting with Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Sam Condor, and senior officials from the Ministry of National Security.
During this meeting between the leadership of the twin island Federation and the head of INTERPOL, it was agreed that the increasing transnational crime threats confronting the region required greater collaboration between INTERPOL and St Kitts and Nevis. Towards that end, Prime Minister Douglas agreed to take immediate steps for his country to accord special visa status to INTERPOL travel document holders, thereby ensuring that the citizens of, and visitors to, St Kitts and Nevis would benefit from any needed international police support from INTERPOL without any unnecessary red tape.
INTERPOL’s presence and importance in the Caribbean has increased since the region hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup and INTERPOL put in place a state-of-the-art passport and passenger screening system.
The Caribbean now leads all INTERPOL regional bodies in terms of member country participation in the systematic screening of travelers seeking entry. During his first visit to St Kitts and Nevis, Secretary General Noble identified additional ways that the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis as well as those of the entire region could benefit from INTERPOL travel document holders having standard visa requirements waived in order for them to respond more quickly to any needs of the country or region when requested.
Douglas stated, “Our number one concern has always been ensuring that both citizens and visitors to St Kitts and Nevis be afforded the best possible security and assistance. By according INTERPOL travel document holders special visa status we are able to enhance our security by forging even closer links to INTERPOL and the support it provides.â€
A variety of crime areas where INTERPOL could be of assistance in providing training were also identified during discussions involving Douglas, Condor, Permanent Secretary for National Security Astona Browne, Special Advisor on National Security Dr Norgen Wilson, Commissioner of Police Austin Williams and INTERPOL Secretary General Noble.
“Any country that needs support in police training or in international crime prevention and response can best do so by ensuring that it has a strong and vibrant relationship with INTERPOL. Based on my discussions with Prime Minister Douglas and other high-ranking government officials, I am persuaded that St Kitts and Nevis is aware of the challenges confronting it and other countries in the region and is ready to take bold steps to meet these challenges,†concluded Noble.
Summer is always hot in Arizona, but the summer of 2010 may be hotter than any in recent memory.
On April 23, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the toughest bill on immigration today. This legislation, SB1070, grants police officers the power to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant. In other words, local authorities are given license to racially profile any individual. If they are unable to verify their citizenship, they can be arrested and fined $500 on the spot.
When Brewer signed the bill, it was the last in a long line of abuses against immigrants. But the people of Arizona, outraged over the racist and anti-immigrant policies and practices sanctioned by the state, are beginning to fight back. Although the law is not slated to go into effect until August, marches, demonstrations, and boycotts are already well underway. The people of Arizona are taking it to the streets.
City councils across the country—in Boston, West Hollywood, Oakland, Tucson, and Flagstaff—have all passed resolutions against SB1070, and San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on city worker’s official travel to Arizona. The Phoenix Suns even demonstrated their solidarity with migrant communities when they wore jerseys with “Los Suns†on Cinco de Mayo.
Yet the most determined opposition to the bill comes from the Arizona migratory communities that are experiencing a state of siege. They are no longer willing to be treated as refuse, and they’re making a straightforward declaration that we are human beings: Somos seres humanos. Even as they are being threatened with deportation, they are flatly stating that they’re here and they’re not leaving: Aqui estamos. No nos vamos.
Source: The Epoch Times
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