(CMR) Brandon Liberal, who was convicted of robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm in 2012, is fighting a decision by the Immigration Appeals Tribunal (IAT) to dismiss his appeal against the decision of the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board in 2017 to revoke his right to be Caymanian.
The Immigration Appeals Tribunal dismissed Liberal's appeal in a letter on the 15th of September 2023. In court documents filed on 4 October 2023, Liberal is seeking an order quashing the IAT’s decision, an order quashing the CSPRB Decision, and an order that his right to be Caymanian be reinstated.
Liberal is appealing the decision on a number of grounds, including that IAT erred in holding that his rights under section 9 of the BOR were not violated by the CSPRB Decision because it failed to apply the correct test regarding the deprivation of citizenship.
Based on court documents, Liberal also believes the IAT erred because it failed to apply the correct legal principles to this exercise, conducted no balance sheet exercise regarding the pros and cons of revocation, and provided no adequately reasoned conclusions.
Liberal is also appealing on grounds that the IAT failed to apply the legal principles relevant to the fact that he had moved to the Cayman Islands at age five and had spent the vast majority of his childhood and his entire adulthood in this jurisdiction.
Liberal also believes the IAT erred when it failed to consider (adequately or at all) the solidity of his social, cultural and family ties with the Cayman Islands and Jamaica and the difficulties he would experience in Jamaica.
According to the court document, Liberal is also appealing because he believes the IAT placed too much weight on his criminal record and insufficient weight on the evidence regarding his family and private life, his progress since 2012, and the lapse of time since his last offense.
Court documents filed also stated that the IAT erred in holding that the section 9 rights of Liberal and his children were not violated by the CSPRB Decision because it failed to apply (adequately or at all) the correct legal principles and failed to acknowledge and enforce the positive obligation on the State to take measures to maintain the relationship between parent and child.
It further stated that the IAT erred by making numerous errors of fact amounting to an error of law, which exacerbated the failures in the other grounds for the appeal. These errors included that the IAT relied upon an incorrect record of Liberal's criminal convictions, despite having been informed that that record was incorrect in the 19th 2020 Grounds of Appeal lodged on his behalf.
Liberal'a appeal is also on the grounds that the IAT erred in law by holding that “revocation of a person’s right to be Caymanian by this Tribunal does not automatically by operation of law lead to a person’s removal from the Islands.” That is an error of law because there is no lawful basis upon which a person can remain in the jurisdiction once deemed a prohibited immigrant.
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