The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE


Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Immigration Minister Brent Symonette said deporting convicted murderer Chris Ferguson after he completes his 40-year sentence for killing Adriel Moxey would be “inhumane”, amid questions over the killer’s unresolved immigration status.

Ferguson, 39, was sentenced last week after accepting a plea deal in the killing of 12-year-old Adriel, whose body was found in bushes off a track road near Faith Avenue in 2024.

Police said she died from strangulation. He apologised in court and expressed regret.

Immigration officials later confirmed Ferguson, a Haitian national who claimed birth in The Bahamas, applied for citizenship in 2010. Cabinet approved the application in principle, but only on condition that further documents be submitted. The department said those documents were never provided and he never took the oath of allegiance.

“Citizenship is granted only upon the full satisfaction of all statutory requirements, including the submission of all required documentation and the formal swearing of the oath of allegiance and grant of the Certificate of Naturalisation or Registration.”

The clarification came amid speculation that Ferguson had already been granted citizenship.

Mr Symonette said the case highlights a legal and moral dilemma over what happens when a long-term resident completes a lengthy prison term decades later.

“That’s the grey area immigration faces. He got a 40 year sentence. He’s likely going nowhere. He’ll do his 40 years. He’ll be a 70-year-old man. Let him stay the rest of the natural days if he survives jail for that long,” he said.

He said the pending application complicates any removal decision, adding: “That muddies the water quite a bit.”

Mr Symonette added that older immigration processes allowed applications to remain incomplete for years, leaving many people in limbo.

“When I was in immigration five or six years ago, it went in a file, and there was no tracking or whatever of the file, so the files could get lost or never be worked on or whatever so he could’ve been one of those people and there are thousands of people like that,” he said.

He described the situation as a “big problem” but argued deportation after decades would serve little purpose.

Immigration officials did not comment on what action would be taken when Ferguson completes his sentence.