Harsher penalties for harbouring illegals needed

| 09/01/2017 | 64 Comments

(CNS): Kenneth Bryan, a declared candidate for George Town Central, close to the area where police shot and killed a Jamaican man thought to be here in the Cayman Islands illegally, says the penalties for whoever he was staying with while he was here need to be strictly enforced. There are two issues, Bryan told CNS in the wake of the shooting. One is that there needs to be an expanded RCIPS marine operation to curtail people coming here illegally by boat.

The other issue is that people have no fear of being caught after helping or even harbouring criminals, especially those who are here under the radar of immigration.

While the RCIPS has not named the man that was killed Friday morning, they have said that they had a warrant to search for him and a firearm. However, it is believed that he was a known convicted criminal who had come here by boat, landing illegally.

Such arrivals from Jamaica are not only affecting Caymanians on the job front, because those people may well work here illegally as well, but if they commit a crime, the authorities have no record of them and no pictures or details of their identities.

“This will make the work of the police ten times harder,” Bryan said.

For example, no one has any idea who the men who committed the armed jewel heist at Camana Bay back in February last year were, Bryan noted, but it is believed they came in by boat just to commit the crime and then they were gone.

But someone on island has to be helping them — and Bryan said that’s the second issue. No one is ever charged with that crime.

“People have to be in fear of getting caught so that they will never get involved. Then if someone commits a crime, they have nowhere to go because people are just too afraid to help them,” he said. “The law needs to be taken seriously so people know they will be punished to the full extent, no lenience for anyone.”

The police had a picture of the man who was shot, which was distributed to the public when they became aware of his presence on Grand Cayman, but that’s only because he was here before, when he ended up in jail for armed robbery, and therefore in the system. But if not for that, they would have no idea, he noted.

“We are surrounded by water here and we need to take our borders seriously,” Bryan, a former political assistant to the premier, said, noting that the canoes that bring drugs to the islands are bound to be bringing guns as well.”If we don’t get a hold of maritime enforcement, we will never get a hold of the number of guns here.”

He added, “We don’t want the criminality of outsiders to get into the heads of our young people here, which may be happening already.”

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Category: 2017 General Elections, Crime, Crime Prevention, Elections, Immigration, Politics

Comments (64)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I think we need to build a wall around us and make Jamaica pay for it! Lol

  2. Anonymous says:

    This is the tip of the iceburg. Everyone knows we have Immigration Officers fudging English Language tests at the airport for financial kick backs. Wha a mess!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Might start off by arming the RCIPS Marine Unit properly. There’s nothing like a .50cal or a minigun on a patrol boat to get someone’s attention.

    • Anonymous says:

      Cayman Defender used to have a 0.50CAL that contributed to the “kill notches” on the side of the helm enclosure. Of course that was before the current political armistice began with the transshipment participants. We can only wonder who brokered that deal and what their motivations might have been.

  4. Anonymous says:

    The real campaign question should be: why don’t our successive political regimes have the will to crush all of the gangs and illegality that goes on in the Cayman Islands? It’s a small community, yet a permissive environment where lawlessness is free to exist everywhere. Have we finally had enough, or are the criminal elements too powerful and too entrenched to do anything about it?

    • Ernie McCall says:

      Hey! Can’t do that! Some of them are kin, or friends, or have friends in high places. And we don’t want to offend anyone who votes the right way!

    • Anon says:

      Instead they have implemented a voting system that will condone the gang-life and the behavior that follows.

      Splitting the districts, dividing the people more than before; class segregation.

      More gated communities will be built, more illegal bikers will be on our roads, more illegal guns behind closed doors, more crime…..

      It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better; unfortunately.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Had an applicant at work yesterday. I asked if he had the right to work in Cayman. When he said no but had a permit, i said I was looking for Caymanian only, and that to stay working where he had his permit. I was told that yes he had a work permit, but that was so he could come here to job hunt. There was no work for him.

    How does this happen? Which Caymanian owned companies are applying for work permits to people and do not have any work for them? Is this a side business?

    As an employer… It is hard to not take notice of the people in this category. They will stop by multiple times, send emails and thank you notes and text message and call.

    I am positive this person will get hired by someone before a Caymanian (not by me) and a new permit issued.

    • Anonymous says:

      It happens because there are too many unscrupulous business owners. Unfortunately included amongst these are foreign nationals who have been granted status and now use that privilege to break our laws. The problem is widespread and particularly obvious in certain industries. Immigration and politicians do nothing. Our systems are incompetent or corrupted. Our laws are ignored.

    • Anonymous says:

      This is how the Janitorial and Construction sectors work. There are many “Construction” *laughable* companies that take out permits for anyone who is willing to pay for their own work permit which is against the law, then they give up a portion of their earned wage, and pay for their own medical and pension, also against the law.
      These fraudulent companies seem to have endless permits approved so these often unskilled workers can canvas sites for work. All while the opportunistic company owners sit back and take a piece of every dollar earned from the sweat and blood of those they have already wronged.

      • Anonymous says:

        So are we supposed to accept this?
        What are the blow bag politicians saying about it?
        What does the Contractor board have to say about it?

      • Anonymous says:

        Nobody can be surprised to hear this. There are many hundreds of vulnerable “odd job/miscellaneous” permits issued at the low end of the labour continuum by unscrupulous Caymanians. There is no pension, health insurance, or guarantee of steady work. Sadly, many many Jamaicans and Filipinos beholden to this desperate and trouble-filled category. Consider also that this inequitable arrangement might still be an improvement over what may face them back home, though that should not justify these labor abuses. Caymanians need to be charged for this to change.

    • Realist says:

      It happens because certain persons who were granted status from Jamaica in 2004 sell permits.
      Very simple they have the person pay for their own permit and charge them a fee for doing so.
      Once the permit is granted the person comes to Cayman and has to try find a job, once he/she gets employed they then have to pay said permit holder a monthly fee.
      I would happily volunteer to assist the immigration dept on catching these people, the unfortunate thing is there is no special constabulary for the immigration dept.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why is this allowed to continue?
      Where are the immigration enforcement team?
      What are the elected representatives doing?
      More important things like opening a boxing gym.

    • Anonymous says:

      You are so right and you did the right thing by not giving him a job, thank you! This is happening all over the islands and the only one dont knows about it is the immigration department or they are playing a blind eye to that too, we have too much inconvenience work permit being issued to people that don’t even have a good paying job to obtain a work permit for anyone to work for them, these people’s need to be deal with and lock them up for a long time.

    • Anonymous says:

      I have a friend who paid a Caymanian for them to take out a work permit for her while she was in the Phillipines. Then, she looked for a new job when she was here. She didn’t just have to pay for the work permit, but the Caymanian was profiting off bringing Filipinos here to work for others. The Caymanian in question is a Jamaican status-holder either. This seems like a type of human trafficking to me.

      • Anonymous says:

        If there is an anonymous website, I can give you a long list of names of the individuals and companies that do this.

  6. Anonymous says:

    It is past time to drain the Swamp. Their are status holders, who are bringing workers who do not have permits and they are doing construction work on their properties. They need to stop issuing or extening certain visitors time. They are here working illegally.

    • Anonymous says:

      “Drain the swamp”: please stop using that ridiculous term

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes drain the swamp.
        In your case, sounds like we also have to consider to flush the toilets as well.
        If we have to move to the next stage of pumping the sewage after that, then so be it. Enough is enough.

        • Anonymous says:

          Flush away my friend but for your own self esteem, please stop using the “drain the swamp” expression. It’s much the same as ‘hands up, don’t shoot’. It has pretty much been proven to be a bull crap phrase. Trust me on this one.

    • Anonymous says:

      The high ups do not want these bums from being here because they all want this cheap labor. It could be stopped very easily, have the immigration job site checks as were done years ago; if there are people without a immigration card (need to be issued once again along with fingerprints) or working in contravention to their work permit then off to jail and deportation. Also fine the employer very heavily for having them on the job as well as no more government contracts. Immigration needs to cruise the pickup spots along Eastern Ave and such, checking all the people loitering around. Are they here as visitors? Then why hanging out in work clothes?
      Come on it can be stopped but then who wants to “rock the boat”. You know the election is coming up and sure don’t want to loose a vote.

  7. Realist says:

    We are never going to be able to stop illegal persons arriving on this island, we are surrounded by water, even if we have more marine patrols.

    One solution possibly would be for harsher sentences for serious crimes, such as robbery, firearms, drug dealing. Unfortunately due to the mentality of our youth and some of our seasoned criminals they wouldn’t even stop then, just look at our firearms law, maditory 10yrs and we now have more firearm incidents now than we did prior to the law coming into effect.

    Final note, please UDP, PPM nominate somebody really strong to run against this guy, I will so pissed if he gets in and get a salary of 100 plus K a year out of my tax (duty moneys).

    • Anonymous says:

      PPM has nominated Alden to run against Kenneth, so not looking good.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yep.. not looking good for Kenny. And Dr Frank is also running there.

        • Anonymous says:

          Is Dr Frank out on bail? Can he run for office?

        • Diogenes says:

          Dr Frank is running? Wasn’t that where he got shot? Don’t know about you, but being shot in a constituency may be an indication you are not welcome.

          • Anonymous says:

            I was shot years ago in the constituency, and it still makes a small squeaking noise when I’m walking in cool weather.

    • MM says:

      10 years jail time is only about 7.5 twelve-month years; and do not forget parole and early release for good behavior while behind bars. Up the sentence to 20 mandatory.

      And as I have suggested in previous years – build a block-factory at the prison and make the men work their time off!

      Having prisoners make the cement blocks would:

      1. Reduce the costs of blocks (obviously);
      2. Reduce the cost of living by allowing people to build strong, yet affordable homes and other properties for investment;
      3. Allow the dead-beat daddies in Northward to assist their children by providing cheaper construction material;
      4. Allow the prison and prisoners to fund their damn selves!
      5. Give the men an opportunity to learn a skill,
      6. Provide the men with more ‘constructive’ ways to spend their ‘time’ instead of making alcohol, smoking weed and trading cigarettes!!

      This is crap that prisoners work little jobs at the prison, then get released 10 years later with $10k in their pockets and an even smaller IQ due to confinement – I know many who have been released and immediately took their prison money to buy drugs.

      Of course, because so many politicians are best buddies with the cement block factory owners in Cayman this will never happen.

      So, my dear self-protested leaders, in essence of not severing your ties with friends; what you can do is have him move his equipment to the Northward compound; release some of his masses of WP holders (oops, the Premier would certainly dread this decline in WP revenue and not have the economical sense to realize the millions saved by making the prisoners pay for their stay).

      Take on free, prison labor. I am sick and tired of spending $70,000+ a year supporting a convict!

      3/4s of the Caymanian population are living on an average of $36,000 per year and someone can commit a crime and get $70,000 budgeted for their housing. – this is BEFORE adding the cost of legal aid to represent their criminal backsides!

      Backwards, country is backwards and the politicians have less vision than a bat in the day time!

      And you are asking UDP and PPM to do what?

      The only difference between these two parties and their leaders are the abbreviations to their party names – same evil under different cover! If ANY of these Governments return or even ONE of their members return this country deserves the blackhole it is being sucked in to!

      Disgusted, completely disgusted. It is only so much of my people’s ignorance that I can handle. Good God, my blood pressure!

      • Anonymous says:

        MM 10: 06 am, we agree 100 percent with you, this govt, and the other govt’s.. should be ashamed of themselves and not run again and more shame on the people that will vote for them again,shame, shame, shame.

        • MM says:

          They CAN’T not run again- they have already bargained their country and families off to the powers that control them; they MUST ensure their re-election in order to fulfill the many backdoor promises they have made to their “handlers”.

          If the Caymanian people elected a completely different roster of politicians every backdoor deal would be squashed or come to light at least because the powers really holding our official’s strings would have to spend a long period of time “grooming” the new guys.

      • Anonymous says:

        Amen…… different only in size

  8. Anonymous says:

    Well said Kenneth. Why are representatives of Jamaica so silent? Why does the JDF never seem intervene and arrest the smugglers whether on the way here or on the way back? Why do Caymanian children need visas to visit Jamaica, yet Jamaican children are permitted here visa free? What the hell is Alden doing about these things.

    Can we build a wall? It will solve many of our problems.

    • Anonymous says:

      Walls don’t solve problems, they just create hatred & division…if that is your intention?

    • Anonymous says:

      You obviously are unaware that Cayman was first to start the visa initiative.

      • Anonymous says:

        Cayman started the visa regime only because of a proven an demonstrable influx of Jamaican criminality. Jamaica responded out of vindictive spite. Cayman relaxed its visa regime for young and elderly Jamaicans. Jamaica did nothing in response.

        • Anonymous says:

          Nothing was done because too many are easily intimidated by Jamaicans, call them out, stand up to their threats to leave, maybe that’s what we need, then bring in new batch of workers from UK & Philipines that might make Jamaicans more grateful for being in cayman

        • Anonymous says:

          You want it all ways 10.38 to stroke your racist ego…world don’t work like that.

          • Anonymous says:

            Oh, but it does. And calling someone racist when you know nothing about them, and the issue has nothing to do with race, is not going to help your cause. Are Canada, England and the United States Racist for imposing visas on Jamaicans? No. They are just doing what is necessary to protect their own people.

            • Anonymous says:

              Trump response 2.59 as with his tweet to Meryl Streep this morning… “she doesn’t even know me” but you know he is a racist..so point invalid I feel

          • Anonymous says:

            What the hell was racist with that?

        • Anonymous says:

          So when Cayman sneezes Jamaica must cough? Jamaica has balls…. they have no obligation to reverse what Cayman started.

          • Anonymous says:

            No, but maybe we should start taxing remittances to cover the cost of imprisoning Jamaicans who breach our laws. Seems fair to me if Jamaica has no concern for what its citizens are doing here.

      • Annonymous says:

        9:25am

        The US, Uk and most other countries have visa system in place to better control immigration. Why is their problem with Cayman putting visa restrictions in place?

        Hondurans, Cubans etc have to get a visa before visiting Cayman, so why not Jamaicans.

        Jamaica has one in place for Caymanians now too…obvious tit for tat…but you know what I have no issue with that.

        Further to that, I have no issues whatsoever with any country I want to visit, requiring that I apply for a visa. I have nothing to hide and I respect the laws of the country.

    • Anonymous says:

      he is doing nothing besides looking out for himself

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