US passport a key to release
IMMIGRATION Minister Peter Dutton has guaranteed that an elderly Julatten man locked in a Brisbane detention centre may return to Australia as a permanent resident if he can get an American passport.
Patton Eidson, 73, has been locked in legal battles to stay in Australia since his true identity was exposed in 2013.
The former fugitive has been kept under lock and key at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre since his arrest by government officials in May.
With legal avenues quickly drying up, Mr Eidson may have been offered his best chance yet of becoming a genuine Australian resident.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch says he has gained assurances from Mr Dutton, culminating in a signed letter he dictated to the Cairns Post.
The document states that, if Mr Eidson flies to the US to “resolve any outstanding matters” and gains a passport, he may apply for an Australian tourist visa to set the legal wheels in motion.
“It is important that he simultaneously apply for a waiver of the exclusion period,” the letter continued, referring to the three-year visa ban for people with negative immigration histories.
“Once, Mr Eidson is back on shore, my powers to intervene will be enlivened and I undertake to grant Mr Eidson a permanent visa, subject to Mr Eidson having been of good character in the interven- ing period.” Mr Eidson entered Australia in 1986 with his wife, who died in November 2016, and his daughter.
They all used false names, under the cloud of a Californian grand jury indictment over an alleged conspiracy to import marijuana.
“Mike McGoldrick” became a pillar of the Julatten community before his true identity was outed after the death of the US friend whose name he had assumed.
He served six months of a two-year prison sentence at Lotus Glen, during which no extradition orders were issued from the US.
Mr Entsch said, while he understood Mr Eidson’s reluctance to return to the US, he was running out of options.
“I take him on his word that there’s nothing outstanding over in America. All he has to do is get a passport,” he said.
Mr Entsch said he completely trusted Mr Dutton to stand by his word.
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