New York AG welcomes Trump’s rescinding of
international student deportation policy
Row over NYPD arrest of SVG UN envoy revisited
By Nelson A. King
In the wake of Black Lives Matter
protests across America and around the
world, Caribbean Life finds it appropriate
to revisit the arrest of then St. Vincent
and the Grenadines Ambassador to
the United Nations, Camillo Gonsalves,
by officers from the New York Police
Department (NYPD) eight years ago.
The incident illustrates that not even
diplomats, with immunity, could escape
NYPD discriminatory tactics, brutality
and arrest.
Gonsalves, the eldest son of Vincentian
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph E.
Gonsalves, is now his country’s finance
minister.
In April 2012, the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) diplomatic corps at
the United Nations described as “uncivilized”
the younger Gonsalves’s arrest.
In a letter to then US Ambassador to
the United Nations Susan Rice, Delano
Bart, ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis
to the UN and chairman of the UN
corps, said Gonsalves’ arrest was a “flagrant
Caribbean L 16 ife, July 17-23, 2020
violation” of the rules of diplomatic
immunity and privileges.
He described Officer Parker’s treatment
of Gonsalves as “provocative and
uncivilized”, and a “very serious and flagrant
violation of obligations under the
United Nations Headquarters Agreement
and the Vienna Convention on
Diplomatic Relations.”
Under those agreements, the US
recognizes diplomatic immunity from
arrest and prosecution for accredited
foreign diplomats.
“On his way to the elevator, he was
shouted at and confronted by a police
officer, who rudely questioned his action
and then grabbed him by the neck and
shoulder, displaying undue physical
harassment against the ambassador,”
wrote Bart in his letter to Rice.
Bart said that the United States, as
host country of the UN Headquarters,
“must ensure that such cases are thoroughly
investigated and remedied, in
accordance with the applicable international
law.
“We call for immediate action to
address these violations since such
adherence could have prevented the
physical and psychological distress
which Ambassador Gonsalves suffered
without any justification,” he said.
Bart said that the observance of
privileges and immunities is of great
importance to the normal functioning
of the diplomatic community.
“We are, therefore, bringing this
most unfortunate incident experience
by Ambassador Gonsalves to the
attention of the host country, with the
expectation that the matter will be
fully addressed to improve the conditions
and to promote the required and
expected compliance with international
norms relating to diplomatic privileges
and immunities,” he said.
The NYPD claimed, in a brief statement,
that its officer “had asked the
ambassador to stop, he refused, he continued
and entered into the location,
and the officers followed him into the
location.”
But Gonsalves refuted the NYPD’s
claim.
“I never refused to identify myself,”
he told Caribbean Life in an interview
then. “I asked him (police officer) ‘why,
am I under arrest?’ And he said, ‘you’re
now’.
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t show ID (identification),”
Gonsalves affirmed.
By Nelson A. King
New York Attorney General, Letitia
James has welcomed US President Donald
J. Trump’s rescinding of what she describes
as a “dangerous” policy that threatened to
deport more than a million international
students, including many from the Caribbean,
at colleges and universities across
New York and the rest of the United States,
if they did not register for in-person classes
on campus this fall.
“This is welcome news for more than
100,000 international students in New
York, more than one million students
across the country, and millions of additional
families across the world,” said
James on Tuesday. “President Trump and
his team threatened the public health and
safety of all students, all faculty, and hundreds
of millions of residents across New
York and the rest of the nation because
of his rush to reopen schools, his antiimmigrant
motives, and his sagging poll
numbers.
“Enough is enough!” she added. “It’s
time for the president to stop treating
immigrants like nothing more than scapegoats
and for him to start leading our
nation through this national pandemic.
“Politics should have never been a factor
in our nation’s public health decisions,”
James continued. “But as long as
the president continues down this path,
we will continue to use every legal tool at
our disposal to stop him.”
In a lawsuit filed against the Trump
administration on Monday, James said the
move was aimed at coercing schools into
offering in-person instruction at the risk
of increasing the spread of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) among students, faculty and
other community members across New
York and other states.
James also argues in the lawsuit filed
against the US Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) and US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in addition
to the agencies’ respective leaders
— Acting Homeland Security Secretary
Chad Wolf and Acting ICE Director Matthew
Albencey — as well as a subsequent
motion for a preliminary injunction and
a temporary restraining order – that ICE,
just one week ago, had announced a major
policy reversal affecting almost every college
and university in New York, and
thousands more across the country, and
that the reversal in policy threatens public
health, students’ education and New
York’s larger economy.
But, in an extraordinary and quick
immigration policy reversal, the Trump
administration on Tuesday acquiesced to
vehement opposition from universities
and over 20 states in relinquishing its
plan to strip international college students
of their visas if they fail to attend at least
some classes in person in the fall.
Just two days after the policy was
announced on July 6, the Ivy League
Harvard University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), both
in Massachusetts, filed the first of myriad
lawsuits seeking to prevent the policy from
going into effect.
Just minutes prior to US federal judge
in Boston, Mass., Allison D. Burroughs,
was to hear arguments on the universities’
challenge, she disclosed that the administration
had concurred to annul the policy
and permit international students to stay
in the US, even if they are taking all their
classes online.
“This is a significant victory,” said Harvard’s
president, Lawrence S. Bacow, in a
statement. “The directive had disrupted all
of American higher education.
“I have heard from countless international
students who said that the Jul. 6
directive had put them at serious risk,” he
added. “These students — our students
— can now rest easier and focus on their
education, which is all they ever wanted
to do.”
New York State Attorney General, Letitia James.
Associated Press / Richard Drew
Former SVG Ambassador to the UN,
Camillo Gonsalves, now minister of
fi nance. Camillo Gonsalves/FB