By Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer 
Anderson
JAMAICAN ATTORNEY, David Rowe, won an important court battle recently when he secured the release of O'Neil Anderson, a man held in a Florida detention centre for more than 180 days.
This, according to knowledgeable sources, was the first time that a Caribbean black was being released from detention, under the so-called Zadvydas Rule.
Previously, only Cuban detainees were being released under similar circumstances, it was reported.
The problem for Anderson is that the threat of deportation still hangs over his head. Only, there is no country that will accept him as its citizen. Neither the Bahamas, reportedly where he was born, nor Jamaica, where his parents are believed to be from, is laying out the welcome mat for him.
TRAFFICKING MARIJUANA
O'Neil Anderson initially served time in jail for trafficking marijuana. Upon his release from prison he travelled to Jamaica. It was on his re-entry into the United States that he was held by immigration officers from the Department of Homeland Security and served with a notice to show cause why he should not be removed from the country.
He claimed U.S. residency and declined to depart voluntarily, as a result of which, he was placed in the Krome Avenue Detention Centre, pending a deportation order being served.
Mr. Rowe, convinced the court that Anderson should be released from detention, in keeping with two recent cases, Sereste Kama v. Ashcroft, and Zadvydas v. Davis, in which it was stated that a Lawful Permanent Resident cannot be detained indefinitely in INS custody, pending removal from the United States.
Mr. Rowe is now focusing on keeping his client out of detention and remaining in the United States. The Bahamian Government has reportedly rejected his claim of citizenship, since his father is not Bahamian.
Jamaica has no such restriction on citizenship for the children of Jamaican parents, born abroad; but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not readily embraced the idea of affirming Jamaican citizenship for Mr. Anderson.
One foreign ministry official told The Sunday Gleaner that "Jamaica will not readily accept a situation where a person's connection to this country will be exploited in that manner."
Anderson's lawyer is now using the positions adopted in Jamaica and the Bahamas to argue for him to be released on parole into the United States "as a matter of law".
In his petition to the court, Mr. Anderson argued that he had been in the United States since infancy and knew nothing of the culture of either the Bahamas or Jamaica.
David Rowe has accused the U.S. Government of operating a double standard on the matter and is arguing for the release of his client from the uncertainty of being deported.
"I think if there is a double standard, it is on the American side which destroys the nuclear family and is trying to force Mr. Anderson to leave the United States and go to live in Jamaica. I don't think the double standard is how the Jamaican Government reacted to yet another deportee. Jamaica has to protect itself against the dumping of deportees. All someone has to say is that he is a Jamaican or his father is Jamaican and the country ends up with the person. I do not believe that can be a sound foreign policy for Jamaica. Jamaica is being flooded with deportees with criminal records who do not wish to be there. This leads to social decay and the destruction of family values both in Jamaica and the United States," he said.
