Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas was in transit to China on April 8 when she was subjected to what is called a secondary inspection by US Customs and Border Protection at Miami Airport. They seized her cell phone, and questioned her for an unknown period of time. According to CBP regulations, a “CBP officer may ask you detailed questions about your travel plans and immigration history,” although what specifically she was asked in this instance has not been disclosed. Although some in the government must have known about this incident, nothing was revealed to the public until Stabroek News broke the story on April 21. Following that, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged an enquiry with the US Embassy.
It subsequently became public knowledge that her visa had been revoked on April 10, something that she herself has since confirmed. Her own version of what happened is that she was referred for a “routine secondary check”, and that there was a misunderstanding over her official cell phone. After that, she related, she was given the option of either entering the US or continuing her journey, and she chose the latter. She advised that her cell phone be sent to Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn.
It was during her return journey, she said, she was informed about her visa revocation, and told she would have to make alternative arrangements to return to Guyana. This newspaper reported sources as saying that after Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas had spoken to the CBP she transited through Germany on April 9 and proceeded as planned to China. On the return journey she arrived in the UK around April 19 from where she travelled back to Guyana.
The PS was travelling on a diplomatic passport with what is called an A-2 visa, the issue of which is discretionary, thereby giving the CBP the right to revoke it.
But there was more to come. According to sources Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas was on a US watch list, which no official or the PS herself has denied. Then on Wednesday President Irfaan Ali made his own contribution to the mystery telling the media she was part of a delegation on her way to a training programme in China for the PPP/C. As for the search by the CBP, “There was no motive,” he said, “People go to secondary [searches].”
The few slivers of information from officialdom which have made it into the public domain have emanated mostly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and are really of a technical nature. Foreign Minister Hugh Todd told this newspaper, “We … contacted the US Embassy on the seizure of the phone and what occurred,” and that an assurance had been given that the seized phone would be returned within a six to eight weeks timeframe. Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas was supposed to submit a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it was on the basis of this that further communication would be had with the Embassy. “[W]e can’t make a determination now,” he said. The President indicated that the PS had briefed Minister Benn.
Government sources made clear to this newspaper that the US Embassy is unaware of why the CBP acted as it did, because it does not come under the State Department, but is an agency of the Depart-ment of Homeland Security. In the US system “[t]here are many, many layers,” we were told.
Minister Benn issued a statement two days ago saying that the appointment of permanent secretaries was solely at the discretion of the President. He anticipated, he said, that this “clarification” would end the unseemly and “reckless speculation in certain sections of the media.” Well hardly, since it did not answer any of the pertinent questions swirling around the issue. In addition to that no one knows anything much about Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas. She was appointed a PS in 2020, with the public being supplied by the DPI with the most economical CV known to the professional sphere. She holds a Diploma in Accountancy from the University of Guyana and a Certificate in Project Manage-ment. Her previous job was as the Assistant Accountant in the Office of the President. Exactly what makes her uniquely qualified to hold one of the more sensitive posts in the Public Service in a ministry which has oversight of the security services in addition to responsibility for a range of security related issues was never elaborated on.
Whatever the case it is a source of great embarrassment to the country, never mind the government, that her name should be on a US watch list, and that American concerns were such that her visa was revoked. Could it really be the case that the administration was unaware that their PS might encounter problems travelling through Miami? If they weren’t, then maybe they were not diligent enough in terms of their background checks at the time of her appointment, or maybe they were just not concerned because she had advantages from their point of view in other respects.
Then there is the question of her trip. The President has said she was part of a delegation, so was she in the company of the other delegates when she passed through Miami, and was she the only one selected for the purposes of a “secondary check”? And exactly what was the nature of the training during what was a fairly brief visit to China? What is to be learnt in a week or ten days or so? She was not from the trade ministry, for example, but Home Affairs, so what was she learning in China and did it relate to security matters? Most of all, what was a senior public servant from a ministry which deals with security doing on a training exercise for the ruling party?
As we pointed out in our report yesterday, permanent secretaries are supposed to be politically neutral, and the PPP/C has in the past insisted that they should not have political associations, which is largely why they fired EPA head, Dr Vincent Adams. In any event, since the PS was on party business and not public business she should not have been issued with a diplomatic passport with a special visa; she should have been travelling on an ordinary passport.
Citizens are entitled to an explanation from the government as to why it took almost two weeks for them to acknowledge that Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas’s phone had been taken by CBP at Miami Airport, and she had also been questioned by the agency. It is extraordinary that it was only after the story appeared in Stabroek News that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged an enquiry at the US Embassy. Were they hoping if they kept quiet nothing would become public? Do they have more background on this issue than they are admitting?
Even if they do, it is unlikely that we will discover why the PS was on a watch list, and why her phone was taken and visa withdrawn before the US authorities provide a formal report to the government. On Tuesday the government said no decisions would be taken until that was handed over.
That said, in the unlikely event it is the case that the government does not know the background to this story, they should be very concerned given Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas’s position in Home Affairs, and her responsibilities in relation not just to local security, but as a liaison with international agencies as well. She will have lost the trust and confidence of the latter, and she will have been undermined in relation to the former. Whatever the government knows or doesn’t know, they should still be uneasy about the extent to which she has been compromised and consider whether any kind of safeguards are necessary in relation to her work prior to a report from US officialdom.
In the meantime, someone in government, if not the President himself, should apprise citizens as to what exactly the PS and the delegation were doing in China, and why in opposition to the conventions a public servant was sent on a PPP/C training exercise. That information is not dependent on any report from US agencies.
