Attorney Arthur Saldivar earned his stripes as an immigration whistleblower at the height of the Penner scandal in October of 2013. That's when he showed the media a sheaf of genuine immigration documents that appeared to have been generated in the backrooms of the Immigration Department - and got thrown out the back door by shadow operatives when the Penner scandal blew.
Now, the Saldivar documents were never all that he said they were, but they did show a department in the grips of shadowy forces. And so today, we had to listen when he called us with some more documents: four nationality documents and passports dating back to late 2012 for persons who only appear to have been in the country for a short period of time before they got their passports. The law requires that permanent residents must be in country uninterrupted for 5 years before they qualify for a nationality certificate and a passport - but we have seen visa stamps which show that these new Belizeans were only here for maybe a month before they got their passport.
Now, we have not seen the original documents - but Saldivar says he got it from a deep throat source and he outlined the irregularities:..
Arthur Saldivar, Immigration whistle Blower
"Now what is telling about these documents is that for the entire period of the Penner situation/scandal, the minister Godwin Hulse had claimed that he had no involvement in these kinds of things. Now, certainly from what I have seen there are documents with Mr. Hulse's signature on them for persons who it appears came to Belize on visitor's visa and within months were granted Belizean nationality, when the law requires that a person who gets Belizean nationality should be here continuous for a continuous period of 5 years. So it appears that these persons did not qualify under the law, but they were granted Belizean citizenship. So this a question now to Mr. Hulse to answer. What was the special reason or special criteria for these persons to be granted citizenship in such a short period of time?"
"One of the main factors that wasn't in the last revelation was that there was no document with Mr. Hulse's signature on it. In this particular set of documents, we have 2 nationality certificates with Godwin Hulse's signature. I cast no aspersions on Mr. Hulse. I would want Mr. Hulse however to explain how this came about. Because from the look of it, it appears that as you have rightly said something irregular had taken place."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, might an aspersion may also may cast on you. Its one week to go before election. You are sweating fever for PUP."
Arthur Saldivar, Immigration whistle Blower
"Why would I do that Jules?"
Jules Vasquez
"Once a PUP, always a PUP."
Arthur Saldivar, Immigration whistle Blower
"No. I am a Belizean. This is my country, I love it."
Jules Vasquez
"Were you just sitting on these documents and timing it or staging it to coincide with the imminent election."
Arthur Saldivar, Immigration whistle Blower
"I just got those documents today and you were the first person I called."
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