Reformation of Personal Behaviour Important to Clean-Up of Immigration

Mark Lizarraga

Are ordinary Belizeans somewhat partly to blame for the state of affairs at the Immigration Department? Is our thirst for accelerated service contributing to the “culture of corruption” so extensively discussed at the Senate Committee hearings? While not saying so outright, Director of Immigration Diana Locke acknowledged that some of the Department’s problems trace back to those willing to pay for the services they are due as a matter of course. It’s something Senator Mark Lizarraga told us needs to be discussed and dealt with in the Committee’s deliberations.

Mark Lizarraga, Pro-tem Chair, Senate Special Select Committee

“There’s still people that continue to try to circumvent the system and there will always be people who try to circumvent the system. And that’s why it is important for us to know where the system was weak; how it was weak, who is responsible to fix it. Is it going to be just policy? Is it going to be personnel? Is it going to be legislation? But it is important to hear from those people like the Director, who is on the ground, who deals with it from morning to night, what she feels about it. Each recommendation has tremendous recommendations – every one of those recommendations has tremendous implications on our nationality and our citizenry, and we have every right to explore all the answers, to clearly ascertain whose responsibility it is in each specific instance, to fix what, how and when.”

On Thursday’s newscast, we have the recommendations from the Special Audit and the discussion of the complicated immigration status for Guatemalans seeking to become Belizeans.