The Strange Case of Mr. Walker

[Wezil]

I'm thinking at some point he has to be released.

I agree. Despite our suspicions he may have done something wrong somewhere. He'd be free already if not for his immigration/citizenship uncertainty.

[N35t0r]

I prefer baby vicuna. It's much softer.

Baby Vicuña neck. The rest is just too rough.

[OzzyKP]

I'm thinking at some point he has to be released.

Whoever it was who decided to question his documentation when he should have been on the bus out has made him our responsibility.

I'm thinking the merchant marine part of his story is the accurate part. That would explain how he got into the US, but how the hell did he get a US passport?

Agreed he needs to be released. But released to where? Canada? The US? Dump him in Haiti?

[Ben Kenobi]

Makes no sense to reward him with release in America if he's not an American citizen, is he?

Deport him to the Cameroon. He's stated his mother is from there.

[Japher]

Make him president of the US... isn't that we do with people of questionable birth?

[C0ckney]

I agree. Despite our suspicions he may have done something wrong somewhere. He'd be free already if not for his immigration/citizenship uncertainty.

this is the key. he ought to be released and soon.

[Wezil]

How about a Haitian named Michael Gee?

After almost four years of refusing to say who he is and where he is from — despite his obstinacy confining him to a Canadian jail — the man at the centre of a bizarre immigration case has finally confessed, writing a three-page letter outlining his “miserable life” as the son of a Haitian drug addict and the nephew of a voodoo priest.

Claiming to be Andrea Jerome Walker, born in the United States in 1973 — a story he stuck to through 53 detention review hearings — he now says he is really Michael Gee, born in Haiti in 1967.

“This is the most significant development in this case in years,” said Andrew Laut, the Immigration and Refugee Board member presiding over the case.

The perplexing story was first chronicled on the front page of the National Post in May. The article and photograph of the unidentified man led to a new lead in the case and, last month, Canada Border Services Agency officials pulled him out of jail in Lindsay, Ont., and brought him to Toronto for questioning.

Days later, on June 9, he wrote his confession.

“My name is Michael Gee, born in September 14, 1967, in Port au Prince, Haiti,” the letter begins. He was born to a poor, single mom and grew up “in a house without light,” he wrote.

“One day she took me to Dominican Republic to find a better life, after a month there, we went to Puerto Rico where we spent a couple months,” before slipping into New York.

He remembers that his uncle in Haiti was a voodoo priest.

“In New York City, hard life never changed and my mother was involved with drugs and alcohol and I started doing the same things with wrong friends,” he wrote.

“With no status, I could not get a good job. After living that miserable life for about five years, I started living by myself and [my mother] disappeared.

“I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.”

Living on the streets, “doing drugs and hustling,” he was arrested in Harlem in 1992 buying cocaine. He spent four months in prison.

He said he met the real Mr. Walker at a drug rehabilitation program after his release. Mr. Walker loaned him his birth certificate so that he could secure a job. Using Mr. Walker’s ID he obtained a Social Security Number, driver’s licence and U.S. passport.

He worked as a security guard at the legendary Radio City Music Hall for four years before joining the U.S. Merchant Marine, he wrote.

He came to Canada on April 28, 2005, “to seek refuge” he said, but never filed a refugee claim, instead moving into a Salvation Army shelter for the homeless in downtown Toronto. He lived an anonymous life there until September 2006 when police caught with $10 worth of crack cocaine.

His drug conviction made him ineligible to remain in Canada but when CBSA tried to deport him, U.S. officials said his identity was a fraud. That left him in a state of limbo: Until Canadian officials know where to send him, they can’t deport him; until they can deport him, they will not release him.

And so the stalemate continued year after year.

“You had shown an enormous determination,” said Mr. Laut at last week’s detention review, “to not co-operate with the removal order.”

The issue now, however, is whether he is telling the truth this time.

“Given the long maintenance of another identity,” said Mr. Laut, “I am hesitant to say that this issue was settled.”

Officials at Haiti’s consulate have interviewed him and are trying to verify his story. Canada needs the Haitian government to issue travel documents before he can be removed.

The IRB once again ordered him to remain in detention on the grounds he is unlikely to appear for removal from Canada if he was released. He has another detention review scheduled for July 28.

CBSA did not have any comment on the case on Friday.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/with+name+reveals+identity/3258570/story.html

[-Jrabbit]

I was really hoping this thread would be a about The Phantom.

BTW, this guy needs to write a treatment and sell his story to Hollywood. That would solve all problems in the case.

[Al B. Sure!]

That should be it... Back in the OP article,

When Canada sent his fingerprints to the United States, officials did find one hit in their system, but it was not for a Mr. Walker. They matched a man arrested for drug possession in New York City in 1993. The name of the man who served the sentence on Rikers Island was Michael Gee Hearns, born in Haiti on Sept. 14, 1966.

Born Sept. 14, 1966 though but the fingerprints checked out before and now his story is confirming it. What's the controversy now? He's finally corroborating his fingerprints.