No special interests can sway the deliberations of the immigration working group, according to its chairman, William Madeiros.

Mr Madeiros spoke after an online group supporting the Pathways to Status legislation urged the working group to deal swiftly with issues affecting persons born on the island or who came here at an early age.

“This has to be dealt with, but it is not for this group or anyone else to decide what order things get done in,” the chairman said, stressing that he respected the online group’s views.

Known as We Support a Pathway to Bermuda Status, the Facebook group reacted with alarm this week to a suggestion in Parliament by working group member Walton Brown that status for younger candidates was not up next for discussion.

Although the Pathways supporters protested that this went against a timetable reached in March after significant protests over the legislation, Mr Madeiros pointed out that they were quoting from a timeline drafted by Michael Dunkley, the Premier, and not the independent committee.

“It took a bit longer to constitute the group, but we are working feverishly. We meet twice a week, every single week, No one is being paid a penny,” he said.

Mr Brown, he added, was “a valued and important member of the group — if he wishes in the House to make this own opinion known, he is welcome”.

The Pathways group had been one of the first entities to contact the working group, delivering “a very comprehensive document on their overall view of the need for change in the legislation”.

Mr Madeiros stressed that the working group would listen to as many sources as it could in coming up with recommendations, but would proceed methodically with a “huge” topic.

“We will deal with children born on the island and that have been on the island since a young age,” he added, urging members of the Pathways group to attend its public meetings, which continue today and tomorrow.

“It will not be lost in the public that the legislative amendment we put forward was adopted in the House with absolutely no rancour.”

However, the group would “not be doing our job if we negotiated our role — they have made good points, but getting in the ring with Mr Brown is, with the greatest respect, not collaborative”.

Last night saw the first of three public meetings on mixed-status families, organised by the working group, with about 20 people attending the session at Francis Patton Primary School.

Participants discussed how to deal with families who hold a mixture of citizenship, PRC status and no status.

Progressive Labour Party MP Derrick Burgess insisted that individuals should stop being given status until the completion of the consultation process.

“Bermuda didn’t create the problem; you’re asking Bermuda to solve a problem that the family created,” he said, adding that the numbers of people affected should be of paramount concern when shaping immigration legislation.

One attendee suggested that the personal stories of mixed-status families should be shared, thereby demonstrating the intricacies and foibles of each individual case — a recommendation praised by Mr Madeiros as “an excellent idea”.

Another popular idea was to address existing abuses in legislation — such as when a spouse leaves their partner immediately after acquiring Bermudian status, and then uses their citizenship to bring a new spouse on to the island.

Working group member Malika Musson urged the public to be thorough in their analysis on the overall issue, and welcomed their findings and conclusions.

“Are your thoughts based on emotion or are they based on research that you’ve done? Whatever it is, we want to know,” she said.

The remaining two meetings, set to run from 6pm to 8pm, will be held today at the Berkeley Institute and on Thursday at Dalton E. Tucker Middle School.

• Anyone unable to attend can make submissions via a drop-box on the ground floor of the Government Administration Building on Parliament Street, by calling 500-4664 or by sending an e-mail to immigrationbda@gmail.com