The Immigration scandal of 2013 is still very much alive and at the forefront of discussions in 2014. That was COLA’s second point of contention with the Government. And President Geovanni Brackett was not a happy man. He said that COLA will not stand for the dismissal of the three suspended Immigration officers while former Minister of State in Immigration, Elvin Penner, remains in his words, an untouchable.
Geovanni Brackett, President, COLA
“It is sad to see that you can throw a bullet in somebody’s yard and if they cannot afford three or four attorneys, they would be thrown into jail. It is sad to see and appalling that you have families who have been torn apart because of this barbaric law and so, we at COLA strongly condemn both this law as it is and we strongly condemn selective justice. What we mean by selective justice is that someone who is not of affluence or who is not politically gave the story that Mr. Verde gave, they would not have been treated in a similar fashion. But we also caution that we note that the way how the law is set up, people can be set up including Mr. Verde as COLA is not here to pronounce guilt on anyone but we are also here to state categorically that the Police are not to be the judge or the jury.”
Brackett says COLA is prepared to walk the walk if the three public officers are terminated and Penner remains in office.
Geovanni Brackett, President, COLA
If those three public officers are terminated, we will go to the streets and we call on the Public Service Union to find the testicular fortitude to defend your members. They are not members of COLA but we are going to defend them. Where is the NTUCB in this regard? How many public officers, how many members of the union should be disrespected before we hit the streets? This is the time that we call on the president of the PSU to defend the members of your union because this is disrespect; this is an erosion of democracy and it is corruption and this should not be tolerated.”
Rufus X meanwhile, said he felt that the Immigration Director should be the one to face the consequences, rather than the three immigration officers, while Murphy “Jihad” McLaren, who represented the Commoners Movement, pointed to general cases where undesirables received Belizean nationality.
Murphy “Jihad” McLaren, Representatives, Commoners Movement
“It went so far that it showed up that our citizenship has been granted to a bunch of criminals not only Citizen Kim. We have our nationality being granted to people, who if you go and put a background check on them, they shouldn’t even be allowed in our country. Criminals wanted in Europe, Russia, and Czechoslovakia; are we mad? Terrorists are showing up with our passports in Iraq in combat time. We have people in this country who were wanted for immigration situation and the man ran away; they captured him, extradited him and now he is on bail. Belizeans, it is time to wake up; we, in the ghetto are tired of taking licks and if you look through the window, all you’re seeing is dirt and our brothers are fighting with each other and killing one another then they are those big brothers out there committing all kinds of high class crimes because with the passport scenario comes all kinds of crimes.”
Representative from the Commoners Movement, Murphy Jihad McLaren
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