I must commend our law makers for passing the Immigration (Amendment) Law 2005 limiting the number of grants of status to four a year.
Another desirable safeguard is the validation by the Legislative Assembly.
However I cannot understand what purpose it serves by the requiring the Immigration Board to make the recommendations.
Surely that Board has the power to make its own grant of status, why should they, in four cases each year, relinquish this power to the Cabinet?
For many years the Cabinet had made the occasional grant of status to a non-Caymanian who had rendered outstanding service to the community in some particular field.
This was an irrevocable grant, and an honour to the recipient.
This practice floundered by its excessive and indiscriminate use back in 2003.
Is the law now designed to have the Immigration Board determine who has done remarkable service to the country and then recommend their names to the Cabinet for grant of status?
Certainly this decision should remain in the hands of the Governor in Council, to be validated by the Legislative Assembly, and leave the Immigration Board to make its own grants for whatever reason it chooses.
In this way a non-Caymanian who renders outstanding service to the country can receive the honour and recognition of an irrevocable grant of citizenship by the highest authority of the land, which he or she has served so well.
In my opinion the three tier process seems cumbersome and unnecessary; the granting of status by the Immigration Board should remain separate and apart from that awarded each year as recognition for outstanding service.
Kipling Douglas
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