Ex-robber fights removal after lifetime in Cayman
(CNS): A 38-year-old former inmate of HMP Northward who has lived here in the Cayman Islands since he was five years old is fighting the removal of his Caymanian status and possible deportation by the court. Brandon Liberal claims that both the Immigration Appeals Tribunal (IAT) and the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board (CSPRB) made significant errors when considering his case.
Liberal was convicted in 2016 of stealing a safe containing over $100,000 from the former Treasure Island resort in 2012 and jailed for five years. At the time, he was already serving a jail sentence for an armed robbery of a courier van in the BritCay car park, also in 2012.
Since his release, he has not been convicted of any further crimes and is now the father of two children here. He is asking the court to give him back his Caymanian status on various grounds.
According to a lawsuit filed in the Grand Court last week, the CSPRB and then the IAT made a catalogue of errors regarding Liberal’s circumstances and rights. KSG Attorneys, who are representing him, said that the IAT made numerous failings in applying the law regarding the deprivation of his citizenship.
They argue that his rights under section 9 of the Bill of Rights were violated by the CSPRB because it had originally failed to apply “the correct legal principles, conducted no balance sheet exercise regarding the pros and cons of revocation and provided no adequately reasoned conclusions”.
They said that neither the board nor the tribunal had taken into account the fact that Liberal moved to the Cayman Islands aged five and spent the vast majority of his childhood and his entire adulthood in this jurisdiction, nor did they consider the solidity of his social, cultural and family ties with the Cayman Islands and the difficulties he would experience in Jamaica.
The attorneys argued that too much weight had been placed on Liberal’s criminal record and not enough on his family and private life or his progress, given that he has not committed any offences for almost a decade.
They said that both the board and the tribunal had found that his children’s rights were not being violated because they had failed to apply the correct legal principles and to acknowledge and enforce Cayman’s obligation to take measures to maintain the relationship between a parent and child. They had also failed to give adequate consideration to the difficulties that the children would face visiting their father in Jamaica.
The attorneys further claimed that the board and tribunal had made numerous “errors of fact” that “exacerbated the failures”, such as relying on an incorrect assumption that Liberal ties in Jamaica, even though there is no evidence that he has any connections to Jamaica other than his mother.
In addition, the IAT was wrong to claim that he would automatically be deported from the Cayman Islands because his status had been removed, as there is no legal basis for a person to remain here once they are deemed a prohibited immigrant.
The lawsuit is asking the Grand Court to quash the decisions made by the IAT and the CSPRB and order that his right to be Caymanian be reinstated.
See the legal documents on the court website here cause G2023-0188
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Could you imagine living somewhere your whole life then getting deported from it? Oh well, don’t let the door smack ya on the way out man. Should have acknowledged how privileged you
were to obtain PR here from these people you took advantage of. Shame and good riddance to bad rubbish.
send his ass back to Jam Rock!
Change the laws to if any expats that got Status commits any serious offence will be deported without the right to appeal the case.This man committed 2 serious offenses, he should Not have any rights to sue the Government to stay in Cayman.
Let’s see how many of you keyboard warriors do without a proper upbringing and see how well you do compared to Brandon. Not too good I bet. Rest easy Big B. NO SAH!
“Lack of proper upbringing” is a symptom of the Jamaican culture of “out of one Baby mama, many fatherless people”…such as Brandon.
Blame the Jamaican breed and dump mentality, not the people of Cayman.
If this one gets away with it, he will open up the floodgates for every other Jamaican who will commit crimes, yet stay in Cayman .
PRECEDENT…is the crutch that their legal aid Lawyers will lean on, at our expense and great social detriment.
8.29am I suppose you would never believe you are racist?.
Racist..?
Did 8.29 say anything that was not true..?
2.53pm Nationality is not a race.
What??? Regardless of whether or not you had a proper upbringing, regardless of whether or not you had family support, Caymanians have more opportunities in our country than just about anywhere else!! Government is giving away money to young Caymanians in the form of scholarships and grants, major firms on island giving away money, Dart is giving away money. All we Caymanians have to do is show interest, apply ourselves and WORK HARD!! People all over the world can work their asses off and still never have access to the opportunities that we have here! I can understand Caymanians dealing with learning disabilities and mental illness. But if you’re able bodied and able minded, get off your ass, pull up your socks and go take advantage of the opportunities available to you. You will have to work for it, but you will be rewarded for your hard work. No more whiners!
it’s hard to overstate how much damage has been done to these islands over years by certain individuals through criminal activity involving drug supply. not to be specific of course but in generality removing these persons from CI would be a huge benefit to the community.
Nonsense, we have at least one as an elected official
Careful 4.13 or 2.53 will call you a racist, for telling it like it is.
USA/ICE has sent released American felons to Cayman on the basis of them just being born here.
Status should only be irrevocable on grounds of descent.
So, he is 38, been here 35 yrs, prob got Cay Status around age 20 – 25, did two serious crimes in same year 2012 when he was 27/28, convicted in 2016 when he was 31, and is now begging to stay here?
He should have thought about his actions before he committed the crimes.
Deport him.
Why was no deportation order sought when he was convicted? How incompetent are our authorities?
Because he was Caymanian, and the court has no jurisdiction to revoke that status. That’s a matter for the Department of immigration, and then the IAT. They have decided to deport him- it’s those decisions he is now challenging . The authorities didn’t drop the ball on this one.
The prosecution could and should have referred the matter to immigration the moment he was charged.
AMEN!!
aah Boi.
Don’t do the crime if you cannot do the time.
I feel for the kids but ZERO for him. He should be sent back with no ability to return.
Honestly, I really do not care how long he has been here when it comes to committing serious criminal acts.
My only issue is why has it taken so long? He should have been escorted from prison to home to get his stuff to airport.
With all his criminal proceeds he can afford to get home in upscale Kingston Jamaica please send back a yard please.
A clause stating that “if a person has a history of committing crimes and/or has been found guilty of committing said crimes that person’s rights such as PR and or Status will be cancelled and such person will be deported back from whence he/she came”. Send him back to his mama!
This is a grave injustice. His status must be restored. Also, his free CINICO card, his monthly seaman’s benefits, his veteran’s benefits; he fought with the winning side on the war against drugs. He must be given free affordable (as in we can afford it) housing, and five free ham or turkeys to make up for those that he didn’t get during the time he was imprisoned.
The “Anchor Baby” loophole needs to be closed. Jamaican guys come here and sweet-talk young foolish Caymanian girls, impregnate them, then leave the Caymanian family to raise the kid while they continue the cycle of fathering fatherless kids around the island. And the cycle is repeated and repeated, keeping these guys here, destroying the fabric of our society, putting more and more people on NAU assistance. These guys have no morales and zero integrity. Their entire sense of self-worth comes from how many women they can sleep with and every once of income they get goes into keeping some beat up “bimmer” or “benz” on the road, which they stupidly believe somehow increases their social status.
Caymanian girls need to want better for themselves and end this cycle of breeding poverty.
As they say, hate the game and not the player :).
As they say, stupid is as stupid does.
Again, you can’t blame the player for others’ stupidity. It’s a fair game when it comes to a Jamaican smooth operator. No woman, don’t cry :).
“caymanian girls” 🤣
You mean Jamaican status holding or descendant girls
orrrrrrr, and this will be controversial, lower class Caribbean girls whether white or black.
At this point, Cayman is being run for the benefit of everyone other than Caymanians. CIG is an employment service for Jamaicans and our public schools are filled with their children. Cayman Airways is a private shuttle and cargo service for Cubans traveling to and from Miami. The Treasury is a beneficent fund dispensing concessions to millionaire foreign developers.
It wouldn’t surprise me if both Boards got the procedural stuff wrong -show me any board made up of Caymanians who care about the rule book! So I hope he wins his case to teach them the lesson that human rights matter and must be dealt with properly and in accordance with the Law, not by some partial group of individuals who decide on the result before they go through the case file or consider any salient facts.
We already allow convicted criminals to govern us. Let him keep his status so he can run for office.
“Liberal was convicted in 2016 of stealing a safe containing over $100,000 from the former Treasure Island resort in 2012 and jailed for five years. At the time, he was already serving a jail sentence for an armed robbery of a courier van in the BritCay car park, also in 2012”.
How did he so this?
Jamaicans are destroying cayman, we need to put a limit on how many we allow here or they will destroy this country just like they did theirs.
send him back with a caymanian “rum cake” in make him enjoy that at home
The PoS also did the 11th hour plea change for the robbery, and didn’t admit guilt for the burglary.
Get rid of this carbuncle on the ass of Cayman.
Rights? What right does he have to keep his immigration status if by committing not one but multiple felonies in a foreign country he’s just forfeited his rights? Lucky for him this is Cayman where leniency reigns in other jurisdictions he’d be jailed in a terrible hell hole for a very long time or subject to capital punishment.
I hope the judge throws his pitiful appeal out of court.
Good riddance and hopefully this will serve a deterrent to the others like him.
Het status or residency, break the laws of Cayman, go jail then go home. How difficult can it be to enforce. I feel very privileged to live and work here.
But if you make sure you kiss every governor’s behind, invite them to your house for cocktails, the law won’t apply to repeat white collar offenders.
This is an appeal of a decision made in 2017. He was jailed in 2016 for 5 years – must have served at least half that time, so should have been in jail ( a second offence) at the time. Yet his attorney says his criminal record was over emphasized and no consider was given to his behaviour post release – presumably in the future. WTF.
Jamaicans ? stop letting them here. it’s too many of them here, stop employing them here. Stupid foolish Caymanian women stop having children by them, then crying that they are a single mother and Government need to help them.
The the thing about rights is you have to defend them even when you don’t like a particular outcome. Denying rights when convenient is a slippery slope that can have extreme consequences later on. If his rights were violated then he should be permitted to stay.
I’m not Jamaican, I don’t know him or his family, but I do know how to think about the bigger picture beyond immigration rights and all legal rights.
Sadly the court of social media is in session. So many people do not understand that this is not about the individual, it is about law and process.
Cayman continues to suffer “human rights” abuses at the expense of our “Caymankindness” revolving door .
Don’t break the law and you’ll be fine. Well, I say that but I am still waiting on my status to be approved when I have been a contributing person to the islands and obeying the laws. What a joke status is.
If he came here as a child, his status should be irrevocable, as this is his home. Different for someone who comes as an adult, and made that decision themselves.
Glad to see the comments full of the usual level of Caymankind, ugh…
Kindness, the Cayman kind or any other is a lot to ask when we’re talking about a multiple times convicted armed robber. Status is a privilege, regardless of how it was obtained, and although it should not be at all easily revoked it’s pretty clear to anyone sensible that this is one of those times.
Enough with the Caymankind rubbish. Sometimes kindness can and will kill. What kindness has he shown? none whatsoever. None to our Beloved Isle Cayman, and obviously none to his child and baby mother. All he caused was havoc. Caymankind does not apply to him. He didn’t appreciate how good he had it here, send him back home where he will meet toughness with toughness.
McKeeva Jamaican. Too many of them here. Send his ass back!
Got status just to abuse our society? No pity! If he has family here, make them visit him there!
Can Mac go along with him?
Get rid of him. Any conviction as such should result in his status being revoked. Do the crime pay the price
Oh, this is a sad case. The poor convicted thief and robber, realizing there are consequences to his criminality committed when he was a fully grown adult male!
Thoughts and prayers and stuff
And getting a couple of anchor babies after he was released from jail.
Jamaica again?
He grew up here from age 5. You believe his criminality is genetic?
Jamaican? Was here since the age of 5 – all his experience growing up is Caymanian. You think his criminality was genetic or upbringing?
If the lawyers manage to get this decision overturned, would that then set precedent that any other criminals could keep their status even though they are in violation of the rules for the grant of Cayman status? Will this open the door to all kinds of people regardless of what they do to the rest of society? What about the rights of the people he committed crimes against? Seems very socialist and left leaning.
Whilst I’m also dead against him staying (although I suspect he will be allowed to stay) you need to Google what socialism is. If we are going to stop being taken advantage of we need to present a more coherent argument than that!
Downvote if you can’t use Google. Seriously, don’t be ignorant educate yourselves. It will only take 2 minutes.
Despite his criminal record if he was given status by cabinet it would be irrevocable which is just not fair. There are two forms of status and that is the real problem. I hope he wins his case.
Not true. Read the law!
And perhaps you may wish to familiarize yourself with the facts of the case. It isn’t about social media judgement it is about the law!
He may or may not have been given a Cabinet grant. In fact he may or may not have ever been Caymanian, and even if he was, he may have failed to continue his status at age 18.
What I do know is that s.34(1) of the Immigration (Transition) Act clearly provides for the revocation of status INCLUDING status granted by the Cabinet.
2:43 pm, we hope he robs you next. Send him to Jamaica never to return here again. He is a criminal, it’s too many of them here.
Caymankind has entered the chatroom wishing bad on someone they do not know and never met.
Found another criminal who wants to stay….
It makes no difference who granted this person status, he freely and knowingly broke the law twice so a bleeding heart wants it all erased and let him stay here. No he violated the privileged of getting status and should be sent back to his true homeland. Why don’t you just fly off with him so you both can have a real good time in JA!
I am not sure he ever was granted status.
Exactly! On what basis does anyone believe this guy is Caymanian in the first place?
I don’t want him to win his case, but I agree that the give away grants are afforded more rights than those of us who took the legal path (I actually turned down having my name added to McKeevas give away list). I was granted status 2 years later, but it can be lost for a host of reasons.
One criminal out of here. 50,000 more to go. Please send him home and the other ones that are threatening people but just because they are married to Caymanians they can stay. What about the woman who stabbed a man in the Brac and the man who attacked a woman with a machete? The marriage officers that marry those people to Caymanians should have their license revoked.
It’s the marriage officers fault for not checking the morality and background of those they are marrying? What about the Caymanian girls that married them?
The Caymanian girls are in a vicious cycle. They didn’t have proper father figures, so they don’t know what kind of man to look for and some of these men are master con artists. It is the Marriage Officers job to not marry sham marriages.
He doesn’t deserve to be here.
Damn. A tricky case indeed. If he has been here since he was 5, one would assume he assimilated into the culture and probably identifies more with Caymanians than Jamaicans.
For a large section of Grand Cayman’s community there is no longer a distinction between Caymanian or Jamaican.
It’s which Caymanians he is integrating with that’s the issue.
Bet you he sounds more Jamaican than Chris Saunders !!
Then that says a lot about Caymanian culture.
His keen eye for other people’s money suggests you may be correct.
While that may be true, he certainly doesn’t respect being Caymanian. This should serve as a lesson to others in the same situation. Respect Cayman as if you really are Caymanian or leave.
I thought the rule was if you commit crimes then your status can be revoked? Why when he broke the law twice didn’t he think about the consequences? You know that when you do crimes against society that it comes back to bite you in the behind.
It cannot be revoked if you got status from the mass give away from Mac & friends. You don’t even lose it if you live abroad for 10 years. It’s for life. Regardless.
Why the down votes. The giveaway has different regulations to those granted status by earning it (the latter have less rights). Maybe Nick Joseph could write a piece on it. He seems the only person interested in writing truthfully about immigration.
Actually, cabinet status grants can be revoked, but only by the Cabinet.
Then they should have been revoked. They gave it to people who weren’t eligible to get status.
Name one.
The idea that the children will have difficulty taking a plane to a country 45 minutes away is absurd. How many thousands have done just that for decades from Jamaica to Cayman? He is the parent, he is an adult, he is responsible for his actions. Actions have consequences and they can, and do, manifest in triplicate. He acquired rights to be in Cayman that are not inalienable, regardless of when he arrived in Cayman and how long he has lived in Cayman. His character and actions are not desirable and he should be removed. They should be deporting more of them, more often and as soon as they are released from prison. No appeals, no delays. no public release to allow time for “anchor” babies.
Amend the law and start cleaning house. It’s long overdue.
His kids live in the another part of the qorld and has not seen him in many many years…..he need to go back where he came from.
Yes, that’s where the weight of his case is on and should be on; his criminal record.
The end.
1. He is a Jamaican
2. His children are Jamaican
3. Caymanian is NOT a citizenship. It IS an immigration status. It can therefore be revoked much more easily than citizenship.
4. Why was he not delivered straight from the prison to the airport.
5. Who gave him status and why, anyway? He would have lost it at 18 and would have had to apply for continuation. Did he? Was he of good character then? Was it in fact continued?
His children should be an irrelevance. He is hardly a role model, and it would seem, has not been a participant in their lives.
Be careful Cayman – if these arguments work every expatriate male here may be tempted to spawn a Caymanian child as a guarantee against deportation.
It is a citizenship once you become naturalized.
It’s a British Overseas Territories citizenship, not a Caymanian one.
No one is trying to strip him of his British Overseas Territories Citizenship – if he even has it (and he may well not).
Probably not. Doesn’t sound like the kind of guy who would bother to apply for status at 18.
Then he is NOT Caymanian, and there is nothing to revoke. He is an illegal overstayer.
Spawning Caymanian children is a tried and tested remedy against removal on loss of a work permit let alone deportation for criminality.
Only the males?
Their contribution takes seconds. The mothers at least contribute for 9 months.
He may have a BOTC passport and could not be denied entry.
Made up nonsense. Having a BOTC passport affords no right to come into or remain within the Cayman Islands.
On your bike matey.
Nothing “ex” about it. Once a convicted robber, always a convicted robber. Same goes for cocaine dealers.
Same goes for any foreign felon. End of…
Even if they’re charged with Deception.. fancy word for stealing quietly.
He’s made his bed now he needs to lie in it!
That’s the risk you take when committing such dangerous crimes. NEXT!!
Clear breach of his right to a family life, Mr Liberal has to stay. As in the UK, human rights really only protects criminals and lines lawyers’ pockets.
The Caymanian people have a right to their property. And to safety and security. And to the rule of law.
His right to “family” (if it is even correct to call what he has “family”) has to be balanced.
Send him back! There needs to be a deterrent, especially now with the current spike in criminal activity!
he needs to be deported as a warning to others of his kind.
Most of them got status by cabinet grant, it is irrevocable.
Not true. The law is clear. Cabinet can revoke it.
Please cite it.
Section 34(1) Immigration (Transition) Act (2022 Revision).
If the Board grants it, the Board can revoke it.
If the Cabinet grants it, the Cabinet can revoke it.
It really is that easy.
Then ask yourself why they don’t revoke these losers?
Because they do not wish to admit they can fix problems? Too much like hard work?
We don’t need these types of people on this island.
Your actions have consequences, sir. Goodbye