EDITOR, The Tribune.

For those who weren’t sure what to make of the case of Bruno Rufa in Freeport, the case of the Cubans is instructive.

What we can now see for certain, if it was not clear before, is that Mr Mitchell speaks a different language to the rest of us.

Investigation into his comments on the Cuban matter have shown us that “national security risk” actually means, “these men are eligible to be released into the general population and have never had any charges of any kind brought against them”.

Similarly, we can finally now appreciate more fully that, in Bruno Rufa’s case, being labelled “undesirable” – what led to the Canadian’s illegal deportation last year – must be interpretable as, “an investor who brought his money to this country, which he loves and spends many months enjoying each year, and who worked voluntarily for years to bring to order and profitability his condo complex.”

It finally all starts to make sense and it looks a lot like Mitchell needs a new phrase book. Other Cabinet ministers are told “investor” means “persons we want in our country” and “second home owner” means “economic stimulus”, while Mitchell is using these mixed-up terms and getting everyone all confused – not least of all the Department of Immigration, which is busy carrying out his befuddling diktats.

JUDSON DEMERITTE

Nassau,

February 24, 2016