Kareem Slams Dianne Finnegan’s Immigration Assistance

Kareem Musa

The use of Dianne Finnegan’s Lake Independence constituency office to facilitate preparatory immigration transactions has raised the ire of many in the opposition People’s United Party.  The move which is reminiscent of what took place in 2012, ahead of  general elections that year, has been condemned as an act that enables corrupt practices within the Immigration Department.  It is amplified by the fact that a special report on the immigration scandal to be submitted by Senator Aldo Salazar on behalf of the Senate Special Select Committee is yet to be completed several years after the hearings concluded.

Kareem Musa, P.U.P. Area Representative

“This is a major issue for the entire country of Belize and we have to keep our eyes on it.  You rightly pointed out, this is an election year.  Dianne Finnegan is no more than a standard bearer, a caretaker, so to speak, and so what this entire situation puts under the microscope is an indictment of the Immigration Department because we have so many people who are rightfully entitled to their nationality who have been here for many years, but the Immigration Department has been ignoring their cries and calls and their visits.  And the moment you have a caretaker, now how is she being appointed the agent of the Immigration Department, I have to question that.  How is she the one responsible now to deal with all these complaints after so many years of neglect?  And to do so in an election year, that is the true indictment, not just on the Immigration Department for failing these people all these years but now for it to be wide open in the public that this caretaker has such super powers that she can now take matters on behalf of the state, on behalf of the country of Belize, as important as our birthright.  Man, we still have an immigration report that has not been tendered to the National Assembly by Aldo Salazar and the entire Senate Select Committee and we heard all of the evidence.  Some two thousand individuals got on the voters rolls who ought not to have been there.  They acquired their nationality irregularly.  So this is something that is on record and now we have a similar situation where we don’t know whether those eight hundred individuals qualify.”