Jobity's father Gerald said: "They have no right to shackle
my daughter like a slave. She is a little child not a
terrorist."He said the family will take up the matter
legally.
Candace Lewis who was to have picked up Jobity at the
airport, said she waited for more than three hours before she
was given any information about her.
Lewis is the daughter of Dr Michael Lewis, pastor of the
Deliverance Temple in Port of Spain. Jobity was expected to stay
with the Lewis family in Westchester.
"When I did not see her I went to information and they
told me to contact an airline representative," Lewis told
the Express in a telephone interview from Westchester yesterday.
"The airline rep had already left and I went back to
information who called the immigration."
Lewis said immigration officials did not give her any
information at first but when she tried them back three hours
later she was informed that Jobity was being sent back to
Trinidad.
Lewis said no reasons were given why Jobity was being
deported. Around 6 p.m. last Saturday Jobity telephoned Lewis at
her home.
Jobity told Lewis that she was being sent back because she
entered the US too soon after her first trip last year.
They reportedly allowed her the telephone call so that Lewis
could inform Jobity's relatives in Trinidad that she was being
deported.
Jobity was expected to leave JFK on Saturday night but did
not.
"She was crying and she told me they chained her to a
chair and she was being kept in a dark room," Lewis said.
Lewis said up to the time she spoke to Jobity she had not
given anything to eat.
Around 8.46 a.m. yesterday Jobity telephoned Lewis again and
told her that there was a mix up with the flight and she was
expected to fly out today.
There is a possibility however , that Jobity will not get a
return flight until Wednesday and will remain detained by
immigration at the airport.
Lewis said she spoke to an immigration officer yesterday who
told her they could not discuss the reasons why Jobity was being
detained and deported.
Lewis told the Express she was denied a chance to visit
Jobity at the airport or carry food or clothes for her.
"So for a second night they are keeping this young girl
chained to a chair, in the same dirty clothes and they have not
allowed her to take bath," Lewis said.
"We are very upset. Kelly is not a terrorist. She was
coming for a church convention. She is only nineteen and for her
whole life she has been with the church.