Ridiculous!
This was how Kelly Jobity described her ordeal while in the custody of United States immigration officers, after she was detained on arrival at John F Kennedy International Airport on Saturday...
News Source: Trinidad Guardian
Photo courtesy David Wears
Jobity, 19, left Trinidad around 5:30 am on Saturday on a Trans-Meridian charter flight to New York, to attend a Deliverance Temple crusade scheduled on February 25.
She never got past the airport, however, as she was placed in a room and shackled to a chair by immigration officers.
Jobity arrived in T&T around 3:10 pm yesterday to a tear-filled reunion with her father Gerald and sister Kerry.
She was dressed in the same clothes she wore when she left T&T on Saturday, Gerald said.
The young woman said she was yet to receive an explanation from the immigration officials about why she was detained and sent back.
Jobity said at least four Trinidadians were also detained and deported.
Recounting her experience, a visibly-shaken Jobity said:
?It was as if we were criminals, but we were not criminals...shackles, no bed to sleep on. We have to sit down whole night, hardly anything to eat.
?We have to ask for stuff and they ?getting on?... they ?bouffin? us.?
Pressed to elaborate on the reason for her detainment, Jobity told reporters:
?They just say that I overstay, but I did not overstay last year. I came back in time.I came back before six months.
?They just giving Caribbean people a hard time. That is the whole fact.?
Jobity said they were not allowed to shower or move around, except to go to the bathroom.
She was happy to be with her family again, but pledged never to return to the US.
Gerald Jobity said he could not understand why his daughter had to be shackled.
?My daughter went on a mission for the church, for God. Why did she have to go through this ordeal?? he asked.
Diego Martin resident Angela Austin, who was also sent back by US immigration authorities, also said she did not overstay.
Describing her ordeal as horrendous, Austin said she, too, was put in shackles.
?I told them I had not committed a criminal offence, and because I said that they told me I was breaking the law. I stood up for my rights.?
Austin, who is staying in Morvant, says she intends to seek an appointment with Laventille/East Morvant MP Fitzgerald Hinds today to discuss the matter.
Nasma Mohammed, of San Fernando, said she went to the US on Sunday with her 13-year-old daughter, a US citizen.
She said the officers told her she was an unfit mother.
All three women had their visas cancelled.
