Unassailable sources from Gambia's Department of State for Foreign Affairs report that Mrs. Mamie Minteh, the wife of Fisheries& Natural Resources Minister, Yankuba Cabineh Touray was detained, questioned and later deported to her native Gambia by immigration agents at the world's busiest  Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport last week.

Say our competent sources, Mrs. Touray who arrived on a Delta flight from the West African sub-region was going through the nornal immigration procedures, when her name, apparentely due to a tip-off raised a red flag and left the conscientious officer to ask her to step aside. The agent reveal our sources, confronted Mrs. Touray with evidence that she had overstayed her visa and that on previous visits here, contrary to US Federal Law, worked without authorization from the Department of Homeland Security.United  States Law relating to employment under penalties of perjury states in pertinent part:

"The knowing placement of false information on this application may subject you and/or the preparer of this application to criminal penalties under Title 18 of the United States Code. The knowing placement of false information on this application may also subject you and/or the preparer to civil penalties under Section 274C of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1324c. Under 8 U.S.C. 1324c,a person subject to a final order for civil document fraud is removable from the United States and may be subject to fines.Whoever knowingly makes under oath, or as permitted under penalty of perjury under 1746 of Title 28, United States Code, knowingly subscribes as true, any false statement with respect to a material fact in any application, affidavit, or other document required by the immigration laws or regulations prescribed thereunder, or knowingly presents any such application, affidavit, or other document containing any such false statement-shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."

According to our sources, since Mrs. Touray has two American born children, she may be eligible to return later when her children turn eighteen and apply for her under the complicated Family Unity Act as amended. Argues our immigration expert, "that too depends on the legal circumstances those children were born in, in this country. Did she deliver here as the wife of a diplomat or the spouse of a foreign government official?" our expert asks rehtorically.

It can be recalled that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh was caught in similar circumstances late last year when the US Department of State denied his American born daughter a passport. He spent thousands of Dollars in legal fees but baby Mariam Jammeh as she is affectionaly called, was denied because she was born as the daughter of a sitting foreign Head of State.

In a related twist, Gambian Youth & Sports Minister Sheikh Omar Faye was also denied a US diplomatic visa after he mended fences with the despotic regime in Banjul and wanted to visit the US later.He was denied beacuse Faye was granted political asylum and for over a decade lived here (in Atlanta), as a Permanent Resident.

For now though, it remains to be seen whether the Jammeh government with all the clownish display of arrogance will begin to rethink twice.

For Mamie's case, we at the Echo are saddened at her situation. Mrs. Touray is perhaps the hardest working Gambian woman I may have encountered.Unlike most wives of high officials, Mamie cooks, she braids, she works all her life to make ends meet.