Bran: why I quit my job at immigration
BY NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
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nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
REPEATED efforts to address the country's immigration problems were "blocked" by "the man himself", Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, claimed Branville McCartney, leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA).
Mr McCartney said he resigned as Minister of State for Immigration after Prime Minister Ingraham told him on "repeated" occasions that his efforts amounted to "grand-standing."
Mr Ingraham could not be reached for comment.
"When I resigned I said my hands are tied. We are being stagnated. My hands are tied. Those are the words I used. When you have persons telling you, 'no one told you to do this'; 'you did not get my permission to do that'. When you have persons ahead of you telling you that, what are you to do?" Mr McCartney asked.
"We do not have the political will to deal with this illegal immigration problem. We can deal with it, but we just need the political will. We won't eradicate it totally, but we can bring it down to a manageable level. The Free National Movement (FNM) does not have the political will to deal with it for some reason. Every time I tried to do things there was a problem," he said.
Mr McCartney said he had three key initiatives that were not supported in the FNM Cabinet. One initiative was a recommendation to amend the Immigration Act to make it an offence for Bahamians to "harbour illegals."
This amendment, he said, would place a greater burden of responsibility on land owners and landlords, as well as employers if they rented or leased to and employed illegal immigrants.
"That was something I had put forward and it was dismissed. That is not an offence in the Bahamas. I tried to put it by way of an amendment, but it was dismissed. The political will was not there. At the end of the day nothing came out of it," said Mr McCartney.
Asked if the amendment would open the way for discriminatory practices like Arizona-style profiling, Mr McCartney said, "No man."
"What is discriminatory if I say, I am not going to rent to you because you are here illegally. If you have a lease agreement, you can have that in there. You ought to confirm the status of your tenant. It is not discriminatory. I do not see how that comes into play. You ought to be in a position to say, 'Look, the law says I can be fined if I rent to someone illegally.' The onus ought to be on the landlords to make sure whoever they rent to is here legally," said Mr McCartney.
During his tenure at immigration, Mr McCartney said he also started a special unit to deal specifically with the problem of "shanty towns." The unit was cross-departmental, including representatives from the Ministry of Housing, the Attorney General's Office, Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Social Services, among others.
The unit was operational for under a year, leading up to Mr McCartney's resignation. During its time of operation, Mr McCartney said, he was "catching a lot of hell for it."
"The fact of the matter is, we started going into these shanty towns from a legal and humane basis, and we started the process of dealing with the elimination of these shanty towns. And then I was told I was grandstanding. My hands were tied. I subsequently resigned," said Mr McCartney.
At every step of the way, Mr McCartney said he met up "against a brick wall." It was no different, he said, when he launched a programme called "immigration watch" in 2009.
Although it was designed for implementation across the country, the programme targeted the southern end of New Providence, particularly the Marshall Road area, according to Mr McCartney, because that is where "a lot of boats come in."
Immigration watch was set up similar to a crime watch. Community members would assist the law enforcement agencies by participating in an "immigration watch." They would call the government agencies if they heard about illegal activity, or spotted incoming ships they believed were suspicious looking.
Mr McCartney said he was told "that is not a policy of the FNM and why am I doing that. I shortly after resigned. Everything I tried to do, they did not have the political will."
"I am not talking about doing it in an inhumane way. I am talking about doing it right. I am not talking about being discriminatory. I am talking about doing it right. Over and repeatedly I was told from the man himself that I was grand standing," said Mr McCartney.
July 20, 2011
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