Mr. Smith you and your association and the Campbell woman have been trying to denounce the Government and the people of the Bahamas all along. When you compare the Bahamas to Nazi Germany under Hitler. How low can you go. You and your slippery friend Campbell are doing all you all can to hurt the people of the Bahamas.

Trying to denounce the Bahamas which you can not do Will not work for you.

Mr. Smith is not denouncing The Bahamas. No where in the letter does he denounce. What he does do is point out to us is what our laws say.

Birdiestrachan are you Bahamian? Post a copy of your passport on this site or shut up. That is really what the Minister is saying. Your children are not Bahamian. He does not believe that they are. They are illegals unless they show their papers.

Man Birdie, you better carry your passport on you all the time. You never know when Immigration is going to do one of its raids and, as the minister says all persons who are not Bahamians should have papers. How does immigration tell the difference between you and a person born in The Bahamas, say 30 years ago, who will speak like a Bahamian citizen, but they are not?

Guess they should jam you in the bus too. "Guilty till you prove yourself innocent" the new Policy of The Bahamas.

No The MadHatter, the fact is that we have been very slack in preventing illegals entering our country and equally slack in letting them stay. By doing nothing we have allowed a number children to be born who, under our constitution, have legal rights.

In addition those illegal immigrants that we have allowed to work for 15 or 20 years now have a "Legitimate Expectation" to be permitted to continue to work; something they can probably enforce.

In addition we have signed several international agreements to which we are bound. Those agreements assume that we will protect our borders (which we did not) and will process immigrants in a timely manner (which we did not either). They assume that if you don't, you know the consequences.

Mr. Smith has set out the consequences.

Enforcing the new policy will be interesting.The only criteria the government plan to use to distinguish a Bahamian child from a Haitian child is the surname. The average Bahamian child from Bain town don't have a passport and his parent don't have a passport. A birth certificate can not be use to prove citizenship.

Where does it say that surnames will be the only criteria? I must have missed that?

I do carry my passport every where I go. Because I am asked to produce it all the time. At the airport, at the bank. that have done business with for many years, at National Insurance ,One can not cash a cheque without it. So why should any one else be different even the Nassau Institute agrees that persons should have passport.

It makes sense for the children to obtain a Passport from Haiti since they can not obtain a Bahamian passport until after the age of 18. Many Haitians have changed their names. It use to be very easy. It is not so easy now. One has to hire a lawyer and put notices in the papers. I am sure some Haitians love the Bahamas and its people, But their are a whole lot who hate Bahamians and the Bahamas with a passion. And many do have that VOO-DOO connection You can believe that if you wish or disbelieve it if you please.

The fact of the matter is that you do not live in a police state and ought not need to carry it. When I travel to other countries I do not walk around with my passport on me and I certainly don't see why I should have to do so in my own country.

I cash checks with my drivers license.

DEDDIE says,"The average Bahamian child from Bain town don't have a passport and his parent don't have a passport." Sounds condescending to me. But anyway. How can we tell the different from a Bahamian child to that of a Haitian? Dem high cheek bones. Dats how. How u think immigration officers can target Haitians from a mile off?

Article 7, of the constitution also states: Any application for registration under this article shall be subject to such exceptions or qualifications as may be prescribed in the interests of national security or public policy.

Therefore, I would say that the minister does have the right to enforce immigration policies in the interest of the Bahamian public. The fact that there are so many undocumented unidentified illegals is a matter of national security. With close to twenty percent of the population being of Haitian descent, Bahamians are a few generations away from extinction. We might even be able to call it ethnic cleansing. But we won't follow your lead and make light of historic tragedies.

And by the way, show some humanity and respect to the survivors and descendants of the holocaust victims. Or does your "humanity" begin and end with the Haitian community?

As I understand it, Article 7 of the Constitution only deals with citizenship. The Bahamas has reserved the right to refuse citizenship on the grounds on national security and public policy. Where someone is a criminal or is seriously considered to be part of a terrorist network they can be refused citizenship on the grounds of national security.

Refusal on the ground of public policy is a much more difficult thing to achieve. It must be done in accordance with know international norms. It is very unlikely that one could justify refusing citizen ship to more than a handful on the grounds of public policy. I intend to research this point and will reply as I gain more knowledge. If there is anyone who knows what the legal position is please say so and guide us as to where to read about it.

The school requirement has to be considered with the right to citizenship contained in the Constitution and Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Since the letter is entitled "Citizens in Waiting" and it asserts an automatic transition to legal citizen status, ispeakthetruth was correct in pointing out this citizenship fact. Article 7 paragraph 1 on the rights of the child also states: "The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents." All children whether of Haitian or Bahamian descent will be required to have the necessary documents in order to register for school. The fact that illegal Haitians are now in a quandary are their own doing. After years of benefiting from loopholes and inaction on the part of the Bahamian government, they are finally being tasked with doing the right thing.

Article 2

1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.

The Bahamas made the qualification of the wording in Article 7 of the Constitution, the effect of which is referred to above.

The letter addressed the rights of Bahamas born children of illegal Haitians, to register as citizens at eighteen. I was responding to that and I maintain that the immigration ministry does have the right implement immigration policy. They have right to know who is in the country and to employ necessary methods to identify and compile a solid number, that is in no way unconstitutional. That is necessary.

The children of illegal immigrants in the Bahamas, sorry to say, essentially inherited the criminal act of their parents because they too are living illegally in the Bahamas. I don't agree that they should have an expectation of citizenship, but they will have that opportunity at eighteen. I have not heard of that law being replaced with policy. Have you?

The new policies are also not discriminatory. Haitians as the largest group of illegals will, of course, be the most affected. Further, nowhere have I read that kids will not be educated for failure to pay visa fees. Your assumption of these issues is premature. If parents decide to again evade officials by not enrolling their kids in school, they will serve yet another injustice to them.

I agree with you that everyone born in this country should be registered. It is one of the first things that should be done. I know that I registered my children within days of their birth.

If the hospital and Social Services do there job properly, all persons, legal or illegal, who have babies at the hospital free would have to be registered. When someone goes to the hospital and says that they can't pay for the services the hospital is supposed to ask the Social Services officer(who is supposed to be there all the time) to confirm that they can't pay, and Social Services should pay. Social Services is supposed to ask a series of questions (where do you live, where do you work, NIB number, who is your husband, father of child etc.).

Social Services is supposed to follow up, they may include immigration in their follow up. If they did their job we would have fewer children born in the hospitals because many illegal fathers would have been deported legally. But both have not been doing their jobs so many illegal children may not have papers, making for a bigger mess.

We are paying the price for our slackness. The laws provide for slackness in the form of "legitimate expectation". And then you have the consequences of the international treaties and conventions that we signed on to.

One big mess created by the defence force not protecting the borders, immigration not doing its job and Social Services not doing their job.