WESTERN BUREAU: Opposition Senator Janice Allen is demanding that her government counterpart Charles Sinclair recant a statement made at a political meeting on the weekend, suggesting that she could be a United States green card holder. According to Allen, Sinclair was “disingenuous when he raised such a question, because he knows better”, especially since his comments, which were made at the Jamaica Labour Party’s St James Central Workers Conference on Sunday, seemed to further suggest that the sitting member of parliament, Heroy Clarke, is the better candidate in the upcoming polls because of his supposed ties. “Look at the history of Heroy. Heroy go school inna Central St James. Heroy go church inna Central St James. Heroy, as a councillor, represented a division in Central St James. Heroy Clarke live inna Central St James. Heroy Clarke knows every nook and cranny inna Central St James. And then you look on the other side, dem have an ‘importer’, because she nuh live inna Central St James. She never born inna Central St James,” Sinclair told the meeting. Sinclair, who is also the councillor for the St James North East Division, then went on to question Allen’s status. “I want to ask if her family never tek up dem self and run lef Jamaica and went to the United States of America. I want to ask her that. I want to ask her if she has a green card fi any other country besides what we have here inna Jamaica. Heroy Clarke, we know say him a Jamaican. Him nuh have nowhere else fi go,” said Sinclair. Allen said she was shocked to hear Sinclair’s remarks, because she has only held Jamaican citizenship. According to her, after graduating from high school in Montego Bay, she received a student visa and enrolled in a Florida community college. “Now, let us look at the facts, please. I’m a citizen of Jamaica, born and bred. I am the holder of one passport – a Jamaican passport. I, like many Jamaicans, obtained a student visa to study in the United States, and, like many Jamaicans, immediately returned home after studying. I have never applied for a green card and I have never had one,” Allen told The Gleaner yesterday. She further stated that after finishing her master’s degree at the University of Massachusetts in August 1995, she returned to Jamaica to work in the public sector. “I did not even walk in my graduation for my master’s degree. I came home immediately after studying to start working in the Ministry of Tourism,” she said. UNFORTUNATE, IRRESPONSIBLE “Mr Sinclair’s comments are unfortunate and give people the impression that I did not grow up in Jamaica. When he made a very snide comment in the senate last Friday, he wanted to imply to Jamaicans that I did not grow up in Jamaica, and Senator Sinclair knows better because he knows me and my family,” said Allen. “I enrolled in Miami Dade Community College in Miami in 1991. I was there until 1992, and then I went to Florida International University, and I completed my undergraduate studies in 1994. All during ‘91 to ‘94, I came home for every holiday, to the point that one time I came home on Good Friday and my grandmother, may her soul rest in peace, asked me how I could travel on Good Friday,” recalled Allen. “I went back to the University of Massachusetts in August 1995 and I finished in May 1997, and within two weeks of my last exam I was back in Jamaica working. I went to the United States on a student visa, and since then, I have had a visitor visa. I have had nothing other than those two types of visas for the United States or any other country.” Allen said she believes this was done to confuse her supporters ahead of the impending general election, which is constitutionally due by September. “Senator Sinclair is irresponsible and should withdraw those comments immediately, because just this morning, I got calls from people in the constituency asking whether I’m a dual citizen. And that was the intention. They wanted to create confusion in the minds of people to suggest that I’m not worthy to be a candidate, and I’m upset by it. ... He’s irresponsible and should know better, and should never want to give such an impression on a public platform,” said Allen. rochelle.clayton@gleanerjm.com