policies.

Mr. Sanders Frith Brown has challenged the Bermudian status of all Progressive Labour Party MPs and Senators.

His target is United Bermuda Party immigration policies which he said were inspired by PLP racism.

"I'm trying to use a trap set by fools,'' Mr. Frith Brown said. "I'm trying to hoist them on their own petards.'' Mr. Frith Brown, who has Bermudian status, was angered recently by twice being stopped and questioned at the Civil Air Terminal while trying to enter the country with a Bermuda passport.

The restorer of traditional buildings responded by challenging the Bermudian status of the PLP members, using the Bermudian Status by Birth or Grant Register Act 1992.

For a $5 fee, the Act enables anyone to challenge a name that appears on a new Register of Bermudians.

But in an August 11 letter, Chief Immigration Officer Mr. Neville Smith rejected Mr. Frith Brown's application and offered to refund the $90 he paid to challenge the 15 PLP MPs and three Senators on the Register.

Mr. Smith said Mr. Frith Brown did not supply "the ground or grounds'' on which he made his application, as required by the Act.

"As you have not provided evidence as to why those persons listed in your letter should not be included in the Register of Bermudians, (the department) is unable in law to proceed with your request,'' Mr. Smith said in the letter.

He also said that Immigration laws did not provide for the department to "demand of a person that he or she shows proof of the possession of Bermudian status.'' A Department official said the new law was not intended to "victimise people,'' Mr. Frith Brown said.

In response, Mr. Frith Brown sent Immigration a letter yesterday that claimed all PLP MPs and Senators except for Deputy Opposition Leader Mr. Walter Roberts MP were born in the West Indies "and that their parents did not have domicile in Bermuda.'' However, "I do not have evidence of this. It is hearsay,'' he said. The onus should be on the Immigration Department to disprove the hearsay, he claimed.

Mr. Frith Brown said he did not include Mr. Roberts in his latest letter because he knew his parents and knew he was born in Bermuda.

Mr. Frith Brown, who is white, said he feels the PLP believes that blacks automatically have Bermudian status, while whites must prove theirs.

He sees himself as "a human rights activist'' trying to end a Bermuda status "witch hunt.'' Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade has said Mr. Frith Brown's claims are false, but he has the right to make the challenges.

Mr. Frith Brown was born in America. His mother was Bermudian and he grew up on the Island. He applied for and received Bermudian status after applying for a Government scholarship.