Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Orlon Phillips is the invisible man
They call him the invisible man, because he is undocumented here. He has no identification, can’t get a driver’s license or anything, and so can’t get a job.
For 39-year-old Orlon Phillips, life is hard.
Orlon Philips
“I can’t do anything for myself, can’t obtain a job- when my relatives send money for me, I have to get a friend or somebody to uplift it, or I have to put it in their name-I can’t do it myself, because I have no identification, and you know that kind of thing is not good. It can create a host of problems.”
Phillips was deported by the US government three years ago, back to the country of his birth.
But Phillips said that he was not even supposed to be deported, because no travel documents were issued for him.
He had left Guyana at the tender age of eight with his family for the United States of America.
“I’m presently struggling, doing what I got to do to survive- I sell on the market. It’s been hard for me. I was locked up in America, and then released and sent back here.”
Like most deportees, Phillips said that he was wrongfully deported, since the case against him had been dismissed, eleven years before he was picked up by the US immigration authorities.
“I was working at Langley Air Force Base, in Hampton, Virginia as a heavy duty machine operator. It’s not like I was locked up, and then immigration come and pick me up,” he said.
“I was working and paying my taxes and everything. And to work at Langley, they do a thorough background check on you- and I had no problems. So my deportation was totally unjust. Now I’m back in the country of my birth and I feel as though I don’t even belong here, because now I can’t even get my birth certificate and identification card,” Phillips added.
“I went into GPO to get my birth certificate, and I was asked whether I had any brothers and sisters, and they pulled up the information on my siblings, but couldn’t find anything for me-it’s like I don’t even exist.”
Phillips said his main concern right now is to get his identification so that he could conduct his own business, instead of having friends do that for him.
He said that he had retained a high profile lawyer to assist him to get his documentation, but to date nothing has been done in relation to the issue. He is pleading with the relevant authorities to look into this matter, so that he could get his life ‘on track’.
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