The following article was first published in the Trinidad And Tobago Guardian on Friday 24th August, 2018.
Reporter Derek Achong spoke about our chamber member, Matthew Gayle, successfully stopping a deportation order on his client who is a Jamaican national.
You can read the entire article on their website HERE.
A High Court judge has halted a special immigration inquiry for a Jamaican woman, who failed to apply for residency before her Trinidadian husband died.
On Wednesday, High Court Judge Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell granted an injunction to Nicola Rowe after her attorney filed a lawsuit over the failure of the Immigration Division to disclose the evidence against her before the inquiry, which was scheduled for yesterday.
Rowe came to T&T several years ago and married a man from Cantaro Village in Santa Cruz. Although she was legally married, she only sought to apply for permanent residency after her husband passed away, last year.
While the application was still pending, Rowe was detained by Immigration officers on June 19 and was ordered to appear before the inquiry to determine her immigration status.
She remained at the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo and was only released on an order of supervision shortly after her attorney Matthew Gayle filed a separate habeas corpus lawsuit, last month.
In the lawsuit, Rowe is claiming that the division and the Ministry of National Security acted unfairly by failing to respond to her applications under the Freedom of Information Act for details of the evidence, which would be used against her in the inquiry.
Gayle sought the injunction, this week, as the inquiry was set to go on without him given the information, which he claims is necessary to prepare her defence.
“The applicant, through her husband’s estate, has significant financial interests in T&T and by preventing her from properly defending herself at the special inquiry, there is a real risk of her being unlawfully and/or unjustly denied of her right to enjoy the said property,” Gayle said in the court documents.
While Donaldson-Honeywell granted the injunction stopping the inquiry, she did not order the disclosure of the evidence as that would have to be decided when the substantive lawsuit goes to trial. Under the injunction, the inquiry cannot take place until the lawsuit is determined.
Donaldson-Honeywell, who heard the case during the Judiciary’s vacation period due to its urgency, gave directions for filing submissions in the lawsuit. The case will come up for hearing after the 2018/2019 Law Term opens, next month.
