None of Gibbons' claims can be verified - US embassy - govt mulling options By Patrick Denny Stabroek News January 29, 2000 The Embassy of the United States of America in Georgetown said yesterday that none of the claims made by deportee Edgar Garfield Gibbons could be verified and it was therefore not possible for him to be documented as a US citizen. And Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, told reporters yesterday at his fortnightly press briefing at the GTV studios, Homestretch Avenue, that while the government had determined that the man, who was deported to Guyana from the US on April 28, 1999 as a Guyanese, was not a Guyanese, the option of returning him to the US was not available. He said he expected that the US government would want to ascertain that he was an American before agreeing that he should return. A release from the US Embassy issued yesterday said that since none of Gibbons' claims could be verified, it would not be possible for the embassy to issue him a passport. "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. 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." Gibbons, in a passport application to the US Embassy, listed his birthplace as Monroe, Louisiana and his father's name as Byfield Gibbons and that he had died in 1968 in Vietnam. He also stated that his mother, Belinda, died of natural causes in 1969. The release noted that the burden of proving US citizenship lay with the claimant. Dr Luncheon explained to reporters that the immigration documents on the basis of which an emergency travel document was issued for the deportee to travel to Guyana were either not accurate, incomplete or a hoax, declining to go as far as to describe them as forged. He explained that because the determination was made that Gibbons was not a Guyanese while he was already in Guyana, the government would have to keep him here until a determination was made as to which country he belonged. Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, told reporters on Thursday that while he was convinced that Gibbons was not a Guyanese he had no documentary evidence to say that he was not. Also, he said, he had no documentary proof to say that Gibbons was an American. Gajraj said that what limits the options at present is that Gibbons had been issued with an emergency travel document by the Guyana Consulate on the basis of the information provided by the deportation order, and the acceptance of Gibbons as a Guyanese by the immigration authorities when he arrived here last year. Gajraj, who was informed earlier by the embassy that it was unable to verify Gibbons' American citizenship by virtue of his birth in Louisiana, said that he had suggested that the search should be done on the assumption that Gibbons had been born out of wedlock. He suggested too that the US authorities could verify the identity of the Gibbons, now in the US and who emigrated there in 1978. Stabroek News located the Guyanese who is also named Edgar Garfield Gibbons and who migrated to the United States in 1978. This Gibbons lost his alien registration card (green card) 16 years ago. He has asserted that since his arrival in the US, he has never been to Texas and that he only lived in Brooklyn and in New Jersey where he now resides. Stabroek News has seen the photograph provided with his passport application and no discernible resemblance with the Gibbons here could be detected. This newspaper understands that the embassy has obtained the photograph provided for the issue of his immigrant visa but said that it was not of a standard to make a proper determination. Media reports out of Houston, Texas say that records of his court appearance indicated that the Gibbons here had sarcastically said he was a resident of the United Kingdom and that he wanted to be deported to Belize but later indicated a preference to be sent to Guyana. Gibbons has claimed in conversations with reporters here to have two sisters who live with an aunt in Fudbury, England but the information about the address appears to be incorrect. They say too that fingerprints on record at the immigration department match those of the Gibbons now in the US. The former landlord of the Gibbons who was deported to Guyana, at his last known US address before his 1997 arrest, told Gajraj that he had known Gibbons since 1993, as 'Slim' but could not say whether or not he was an American. The police, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Floyd McDonald, have already determined that Gibbons is not a Guyanese and have so informed the various agencies involved. Stabroek News has seen documents which suggest that the US embassy was one of the agencies informed but Head of the consular section, Vincent Principe, asserted that he had seen no such communication. The Gibbons here was located in a Huntsville, Texas prison and informed that he was Guyanese and was being deported as a result of his convictions in 1993 and 1998 on drug-related charges. He claims that he protested that he was not a Guyanese but his protests were ignored and that in the end he just gave up protesting hoping that the mistake would be realised and he would be released. The details of the Gibbons now in the United States are listed on the immigration form for the deportee which was handed over to the local authorities. It lists the parents of the Gibbons here, Leon and Edna Gibbons as both deceased but Stabroek News has spoken with Edna Gibbons who put the newspaper in contact with her son. Principe said that he found Gibbons's behaviour rather strange for an American as he had not beaten down the doors of the embassy seeking its assistance to confirm his American citizenship. Gibbons has been in the preventative custody of the police at the Brickdam Police Station since his arrival. Principe also noted that there was no confirming evidence such as a photograph that the Gibbons to whom Stabroek News spoke in the US was in fact who he claimed to be. However, this newspaper has been informed by a source in the US that through the verification of public records, the social security number listed for the Gibbons now in the US was validly issued to him.