Decision expected soon on U.S. deportee
CONSUL in the United States Embassy, Mr Vincent Principe, yesterday said a decision on deportee Edgar Garfield Gibbons will be made within two weeks by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS). "This week or early next week we expect some action to be taken...everyone is holding their breath...but I am sure there will be a response," he told the Chronicle. Principle said he is not predicting the result, but noted the action will make the INS approach to the matter clearer. "We should be getting some answers very soon...before a fortnight...what we are going to do with him," he said. Asked if the U.S. embassy will pay for his flight out of the country if a decision is made to remove Gibbons, Principe said that would be done by the INS. "The U.S. State Department (embassy) does not have anything to do with it...any fees for transportation would be borne by the U.S. Immigration," he explained. It will be one year next month since Gibbons was deported to Guyana by U.S. immigration. He has been unable to satisfy U.S. authorities that he is U.S.-born and the Guyana Government said it has established he is not Guyanese. Asked about the status of the investigations by the international police organisation (Interpol) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Principe stated that the information the embassy here is getting from the INS is that it is working with these agencies. "They are just keeping us informed of progress...but not of specifics," he told the Chronicle. The INS extended its search worldwide to determine the nationality of the man, and has sent his fingerprints to Interpol and the FBI to run checks. According to Principe, Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Ronald Gajraj formally wrote the embassy on February 17 requesting the removal of Gibbons from Guyana. Consequently, the embassy informed the INS of the request of the Government of Guyana to have Gibbons removed from the country. Gibbons, jailed on drugs charges, was handed over to the INS by the Texas Department of Corrections on February 19, 1999, and on March 26, 1999 documents for his removal from custody were completed. On April 26, 1999 the final order of removal from the U.S. was received and he was deported to Guyana. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon recently told reporters: "We are expecting that when this matter is finally cleared up that the responsible American agency would remove this non-Guyanese from our jurisdiction." Luncheon said the government's position is that Gibbons was brought to Guyana on the basis of inaccurate information as to his Guyanese nationality. (ROBERT BAZIL)
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