President Irfaan Ali yesterday said that Home Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary, Mae Toussaint Jr. Thomas was on her way to a training programme in China for the PPP/C when she was called in for a secondary inspection at Miami International Airport in the US and her cellphone seized.
Coming 18 days after the confiscating of her phone, the President’s statement will make even murkier the questions surrounding why she was pulled in by the authorities, why she was on a watch list and why her visa was revoked two days later. The nature of the training in China is also unclear.
Further, the President and his government will have to explain why a supposedly politically neutral Permanent Secre-tary was engaged in party business in China when she should be above the fray. The PPP/C has often argued that public servants should not have political ties. This was one of the main grounds that it used to sack the former Head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr Vincent Adams.
If she was on party business she should have been travelling on an ordinary passport, sources have pointed out.
There was still no word from the government yesterday on why it remained silent for days on the confiscation of the cellphone. It was not until Stabroek News reported the seizing of the phone on Friday April 21st that the government lodged an inquiry with the US Embassy in Georgetown. By that time, senior government officials had to have known.
Meanwhile, Toussaint Jr. Thomas broke her silence yesterday while not providing any significant details on why the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had taken her phone. She said that the phone was seized on April 8 and she was notified of her visa revocation two days later.
“I wish to refer to speculation, both in the Print and Social Media, about my interface recently with US Immigration officials at Miami International Airport on April 8, 2023. Most of what has been reported is erroneous. I wish to clarify that I was referred for a ‘routine secondary check.’ There was a misunderstanding over my official cell phone without me being able to advise my officials. I advised that the cellphone be sent to the Minister of Home Affairs, Honorable Robeson Benn in Guyana,” Thomas said in a statement issued last evening.
“Thereafter, I was allowed the choice of entering the United States of America or continuing on my journey- which last I opted to so do. Subsequently, during my return journey I was advised that my US visa was revoked on the 10th April, 2023 and that I would have to make alternative arrangements to return to Guyana,” the statement adds.
She said that she remains “open to engaging with US authorities on any possible travel arrangements to the USA in the future.”
Benn himself also issued a statement yesterday.
“The Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, M.P., herewith advises that Permanent Secretary, Mae Toussaint Jr. Thomas is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and that the appointment of Permanent Secretaries is solely at the discretion of His Excellency Irfaan Ali, President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Minister Benn anticipates that this clarification will bring to an end unseaming and reckless speculation in certain sections of the media”.
Ali said that he understands that Toussaint Jr. Thomas was singled out as part of a routine secondary search by CBP officers.
He said that Thomas had briefed Home Affairs Minister Benn and would undertake the necessary steps that are triggered for officials.
“The minister would have advised me that the authorities said it was normal routine part of how they execute their job… things are asked [during the secondary search] which I am aware of. There was no motive, it was a normal routine procedure. People go to secondary [searches],” the President said.
“She was travelling to China on a training programme. I know she was travelling as part of a delegation going to China, for the party,” he also noted.
Ali said that “any Guyanese who is mistreated in anyway by any one and reports such mistreatment, there is a procedure [with respect to] how we deal with it.”
“In this case, a public office holder would have said to the minister, given a statement about what transpired, all of that would be handled through the procedures. And the procedure is one which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would examine the report and then peruse that report with the relevant agencies. In this case, I am convinced that once that report is completed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would channel it through the necessary [avenues].”
Breaking its official silence on Tuesday, the government informed that it is awaiting a formal report on the issue from the United States authorities before any decisions but acknowledged that Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) actions were lawful.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd said that an assurance has been given by the US authorities that the seized phone will be returned, anytime within a six to eight week timeframe, and that government has accepted that it is within the lawful powers of the CBP to search travellers, confiscate items, and revoke visas.
“We [government] are aware… we contacted the US Embassy on the seizure of the phone and what occurred. Their law gives the Customs and Border Patrol [Protection] the authority to do what they did,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs told Stabroek News.
“It doesn’t affect US and Guyana relations. We have to abide and we have to await their investigations and then determine the next step… we can’t make a determination now,” he added.
The Permanent Secretary was at the time in-transit in Miami on her way to China. She was using a United States Service visa on a Guyana diplomatic passport and was on her way to participate in an exchange programme that was not work or government related, this newspaper understands.
Sources say that Thomas had been on a US watch list. The appearance of her name on the watch list will raise even further questions about what could have caused her name to be placed on it and what could have led to the confiscation of her phone.
Government sources explained to this newspaper that the United States Embassy here has said that it is not aware of what triggered CBP’s actions, as they have no direct interactions with that CBP since it is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
“The US system is different. It isn’t a system like in Guyana where you can pick up a phone and call an agency and get answers. There are many, many layers. What we know is that border security has sweeping powers,” the source explained.
“…It is not at the level of the State Department. It is at CBP so it has to move its way [down],” the source added.
One source said that it was only logical that government waits before it acts on the issue because “it is not clear as yet what information US authorities has on her [Thomas] and until that is revealed then it would be premature to pronounce on the issue.”
And on Thomas’ visa revocation, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that while she traveled on the A-2 visa, its issuance is discretionary with a condition that gives CBP the right to revoke it.
