'I was born in the USA' - disowned deportee
DEPORTEE Edgar Garfield Gibbons yesterday maintained he was born in the United States despite a statement Friday from the U.S. Embassy here that there is no evidence of his claimed American citizenship. He admitted that he also used the name Danny Carmichael on many occasions for traffic offences in the U.S., but said he would rush to the Police station to pay his ticket in the name of Edgar Gibbons, his real name. He told the Chronicle that he moved from Louisiana to Houston, Texas to the "third and fourth ward" (a ghetto) when he was about two or two-and-a-half years old. A statement from the embassy said a thorough check of U.S. records failed to substantiate the applicant's claim to citizenship by virtue of birth in Louisiana. But Gibbons is contending that Louisiana is one of the more backward states in the U.S. and in 1958 - the year he said he was born - the situation was "one thousand times worse" and that's why no record of his birth could be found. Gibbons was shipped here last April by U.S. immigration after serving time in jail for a drugs offence and has been staying at the Brickdam Police station in Georgetown from where he earlier this month maintained he was brought here by mistake. The U.S. Embassy here said the man staying at Brickdam never enrolled in Houston schools as he claimed, nor did his father die in Vietnam. But the deportee said he went to Cullen Middle School in Cullen Boulevard and Jack Yates school on Sampson Street up to the ninth grade - both in Houston, Texas. He denied he ever said he was from England and that he wanted to go there or to Belize, but indicated that he has a brother and sister in England and does not know their address. In relation to the embassy's claim that he did not supply sufficient details about his mother's identity, Gibbons told the Chronicle that he does not know what his mother's name was before she got married. He said if his fingerprint is taken and entered in a computer in the United States and details about his driver's licence are requested, his nationality as an American would be revealed. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon declared Friday that the Guyana Government's position is that the man is not a Guyanese and it is clear Guyana was the "victim of (an) incorrect, inaccurate or an out and out hoax." "We were able to determine that the gentleman residing in Brickdam was not born when and where he said he was born. He was never enrolled in the Houston, Texas schools he claims to have attended", the U.S. Embassy said. "No evidence emerged to support the gentleman's claim that his father from Louisiana died in Vietnam. Neither did he provide sufficient information concerning his mother's identity", it added. Luncheon told a press conference in Georgetown the "issue as to what he is surely is not a Government of Guyana endeavour...that has to be established by other countries". The administration here has established beyond reasonable doubt that Gibbons is not a Guyanese, he said. Gibbons was identified as a Guyanese by U.S. immigration and other authorities and deported here after serving a jail term for marijuana possession. (ROBERT BAZIL)
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