The Brooklyn-based Guyanese social media activists who had developed a network of government and opposition sources providing her with fairly accurate incidents of runway corruption in Guyana has been released from an immigration detention center in Louisiana and has, as expected, blamed the governing party back home for trying to get her deported so political vengeance can be exacted on her.
Melissa Ann Atwell-Holder was snatched from her home late last month and mysteriously flown to the center in Louisiana. At the same time, leading members of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) boasted about her imminent downfall and pending deportation on social media. Cabinet ministers also vowed that they had had nothing to do with her arrest by ICE as they have little influence over US immigration policies.
But at a hearing late last week, Atwell-Holder was released on $7,500 bond. The judge and prosecutors expressed dismay at her detention since she is married to a US citizen and her documents are being processed, the court was told. Both also acknowledged that she has no criminal record and is not a flight risk or a threat to the community. She was finally released on Monday.
Her attorney, Joyce Booth, indicated that she had entered the country on a valid visa and lived with her husband, while Judge Francis Mwangi said she would be free if Atwell-Holder paid the bond. “The Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement may see you in the future, maybe not,” he said as the case was transferred to New York. Booth had deemed her arrest and detention as “a mystery.” The judge had also said he was baffled.
By Tuesday, a defiant Atwell trading on social media as “Melly Mel” vowed to step up the fight against the PPP in Guyana, openly blaming party officials for plotting her downfall with the help of an unnamed powerful Washington DC lobbying firm. By Wednesday, she had released what she said was the method used by government officials to eke out bribes from state contractors from sums paid to them upfront as mobilization fees. She alleged that such a large percentage is sometimes taken from hapless contractors whose jobs are either abandoned or done sloppily.
“The American system has worked. The US is the best place on earth for those who fight for causes for humanity. The American systems and institutions remain as strong as ever. Was the government of Guyana involved in my detention? The answer is yes! They were deeply involved. How do I know this? The personal information, which was revealed through political operatives in Guyana, could not have been known unless there was someone on the inside of the US bureaucracy feeding this information to a lobby firm, which in turn passed that information to PPP sources. No one in Guyana could have known so quickly that I was being detained and taken to the ICE office at that hour in the morning. No one could have known my US identification numbers unless it was leaked from the inside and passed to a lobby form, which in turn was passed to the PPP operatives,” she said in a Facebook posting.
She did, however, admit that no one could have known I overstayed my visa by two days before marriage unless it came from the inside. The PPP activists who called ICE specifically referred to the two-day overstay, which was the loophole identified by the lobbying firm. This is coordination at the highest level,” she said.
Authorities here want her on home soil to face several libel lawsuits and possible cybercrimes, all linked to a string of social media postings over the years. “For those who think I am traumatized and will go silent, think again; the work has now started. The PPP has made me bigger than before; I am now in a position to expose their corruption on a global level that has never been seen before. While in detention, I received overwhelming support from major international organizations who have offered me special membership and their resources and services. I have created websites while in detention. I have completed work that will fortify my activities here,” she said.
