I HAVE always opined that the large presence of comedy in Guyanese politics keeps a commentator mentally agile. There are times when the comedy is so hilarious that you know that you can never run out of things to write about. The latest hilarity in Guyanese politics is the story of Melly Mel’s (MM) imprisonment for visa overstay in the US at a time when Mark Benschop offers a wide array of immigration services and the two are comrades.

Benschop has a company named “Benschop Consultancy.” Of course, everything that Benschop is involved in has to carry his name. Remember, he was presidential candidate in the 2015 elections and his party’s name was Team Benschop. The advertisement for Benschop Consultancy says: Asylum cases; family-based visa; Adjustment of status; citizenship; Derivative citizenship; Delayed petition; Overstaying of visa; visitor’s visa.

There is nothing on the advertisement that says, “consultation is free” so I am assuming that Benschop is charging people for his service. Now, given the closeness of Melly Mel and Benschop, how did she end up in detention when Benschop could have advised her and spared her imprisonment?
Here is how MM got into trouble according to court documents. She was in the US on a visitor’s visa and got married. According to her lawyer, she petitioned for a change in status. At this point, Benschop’s benzopyrene caused MM to be saddled with melazuma. If you are on a visitor’s visa and you marry an American, you have to have a current valid visa while your papers are being processed.

If you are in the US and you marry an American and you apply to change your status and while waiting for that, your visa time ran out, then you do not have legal standing. You cannot assume that because you are married to an American, you are automatically entitled to stay. I, as an ordinary Guyanese without even a modicum of immigration knowledge, know this because there is an element of commonsense in it.
A foreign person in a country must have a legal document that makes their stay valid and legitimate. If you have such a document and its duration expires, then you do not have legal status. Isn’t that commonsense? You do not have valid insurance when it expires, therefore the police will charge you because if you crash the insurance company will not compensate the accident victims.

My understanding is when you marry an American you have to wait for your papers to be processed. Until that happens, you have to have a valid visa. What is important is that (this is my understanding again) is that you have to leave the US and wait until you are called at the local embassy for an appointment. It is alleged that at the time of her arrest, her visa had expired.

The question is why Benschop did not guide her unless two things happened. He himself does not understand US immigration laws or MM did not utilise his service and if she did not, she should tell us so and the reason why. Could it be that his fees are exorbitant?
So there are two comedic sides to the Melly Mel/Mark Benschop saga. First, Benschop rants all the time about Guyana, but chooses to leave Guyana where he lives and works. Why can he not live in Guyana? He could set up his immigration consultancy right here.  The second comedic side is that MM has left all the Guyanese men to marry an American and has made an application to have permanent residency in the US.

When her application is approved (providing she is not deported; if she is then her papers to stay in the US might be jeopardy), she will be living in the US. So here you have David Hinds, Rickford Burke, Mark Benschop and now MM getting on social media every day and telling people about Guyana that they chose not to live in. Why Guyana is their concern when they are not living here? And why is their contribution to Guyana zero?

This column would not be complete if there is no mention of the accusation by the opposition that the Guyana Government was involved in a conspiracy to have MM arrested. It turned out that she was detained for visa overstaying, which the US easily picks up despite the large numbers of visitors who overstay because of the artificial intelligence software that the US uses.

Of course, the arrest of MM gave the opposition an opportunity to do some ant-government bashing. But two things happened. They misled their supporters. And secondly, can and should people trust politicians that use them? The answer is no.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.