–          nothing to do with Government of Guyana
–          AG says   

ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, asserted that the detention and arrest of social media commentator, Melissa “Melly Mel” Atwell, in the United States is purely an immigration issue.
The Minister made this known during Tuesday’s airing of his weekly show ‘Issues in the News’, during which he made it clear that the character’s arrest has nothing to do with the government of Guyana.
He noted that, from all the information that has been released thus far, Atwell was arrested by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency which is an agency in the U.S. that enforces immigration laws and prosecutes persons for immigration violations or violations of immigration law.

While this is so, he noted that a grouping of persons in Guyana is protesting the government of Guyana and calling for her release.
He affirmed, “For the avoidance of doubt, the government of Guyana did not arrest Melissa Atwell. The government of Guyana is not detaining Melissa Atwell; from all the information that is available, it is the U.S. government that has arrested and is detaining Melissa.”
With this, the Attorney General said that he saw opposition forces joining a protest and as such stated that he wanted to make it very clear that it cannot be that those persons are protesting the government of Guyana. They have to be protesting the U.S. government.

Further to this, Nandlall stated that it is no secret that President Donald Trump campaigned on an immigration policy and, since his inauguration, has vigorously launched a campaign to enforce the same in the United States.
This policy by the United States president, he said, targets specifically persons who are in the United States in violation of immigration laws and since then thousands of persons have been arrested and in custody at detention centres while hundreds if not thousands have already been deported.
“The Government of Guyana plays no part in this process,” he said.

This, he said, shows not only how out of sync with reality opposition elements are in Guyana, but it shows their lack of judgement and maturity.
“To think that you can galvanise support and you can actually create some credible narrative and implicate the government of Guyana in this imbroglio, to my mind, is a demonstration of how gullible and fanciful your mentality is and your ability to assess a situation intelligently is,” he said.
To this end, the AG questioned what is the rational basis for protesting the government of Guyana in this case.

While some elements he said seem to be projecting it as though it is a freedom of expression issue, Nandlall indicated that Atwell for years was allowed to express her opinions freely and no one attempted to interfere with her right to express herself.
With this, the AG added that one cannot discount that several complaints have been levelled against Atwell to law enforcement in relation to fraudulent activities and, as such, these may be the matters she is being investigated for.

Further to this, Nandlall highlighted posts made across Atwell’s social media in which she tagged U.S. law enforcement agencies and even other posts where she cursed the government of Guyana and even President Trump.
The AG noted, “Those persons who are protesting out there must understand that they are protesting the actions of a sovereign government enforcing its laws within the territory of that sovereign country as that sovereign government has a legal duty to do against those who that sovereign government, through its law enforcement agencies, believe have violated the law.”

During Tuesday’s protest, opposition members claimed that Atwell’s arrest was connected to her advocacy against the Guyana government.
Atwell was arrested last week and, according to reports, is being detained at a Louisiana detention centre and is expected to appear before a judge in June.