INSIDE GRENADA FEBRUARY 16, 2008 Jamaican journalist Tenesha Thomas was given a little more time before she is booted out of Grenada over immigration breaches. Miss Thomas, formerly of the Gleaner Newspaper, was detained on February 14 by immigration officials, who accused her of over-staying her allotted time in the country. She was told that she had 24 hours to leave the country. Head of the Grenadian Immigration and Passport Division, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Jesmond Prince told the RJR News Centre on February 15 that Miss Thomas was released from police custody. ASP Prince said her lawyers arranged for the matter to be handled outside of the courts, with Miss Thomas being allowed to remain in the country over the period it would take to make travel arrangements for her to return to Jamaica. The Immigration Chief refuted reports that Miss Thomas's passport was incorrectly stamped August 2, 2008, instead of February 8, 2008. However, while he concedes that the arrangement of the numbers in the stamped dates may have been misinterpreted by the reporter, it is unlikely that this was the case. "I am sure that as a journalist, Miss Thomas has traveled throughout the region, and would have experienced the time frame that is given to travel. So she cannot interpret that immigration would give you seven months and a few weeks and some days. That is not a normal practice," said ASP Prince. He said she made matters worse for herself by avoiding immigration officers when they tried to speak with her. "It (her passport) was saying that she had one month, and if she had a problem with that, she should have enquired of the immigration officer or come to the immigration office, to ascertain whether that is the case. But the fact that we went to look for her, to ask her some questions and to verify her status, and (with) her employer refusing us access to speak with her, we had to return the next day to get her," he said. He also strongly refuted any suggestion that his office or the government was victimizing Ms Thomas. Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers 47 Tragarete Road, Port of Spain Trinidad, West Indies