Grandmother faces deportation

Mary Martin has brought up four children in the UK

A grandmother who has lived in the UK for 54 years has been told that she will be deported because she is considered an American citizen.

Mary Martin, 55, from Trimley St Mary in Suffolk, was born in the United States and moved to Ipswich with her British-born mother in 1949.

The Home Office has ordered her to leave the country by Thursday because she could not prove she had lived in the UK for at least 14 years.

She told BBC Look East: "I'm scared to open my own door in case they've got a warrant to arrest me.

Mary Martin has lived in the UK since age two

"I feel devastated."

Twice-married Miss Martin, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, has 10 grandchildren, and lives with her partner, Ted Harrod, 61, a builder.

She successfully applied for a birth certificate and passport from the US when she found she did not have the documents after her mother's death.

Her bid for a UK passport was then rejected, even after she sent the Home Office details of National Insurance, income tax and wage slips dating back several years.

Local support

Miss Martin said the only way she could overturn the ruling was to provide a "right to remain form" which she does not possess.

She has been told she should have been given the form when she arrived in the UK as a two-year-old.

Her campaign to stay in the UK is being supported by her local MP John Gummer, and by neighbours who are lobbying officials in her favour.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: "We do not comment on the immigration status of individuals."

Miss Martin said: "I'm a Suffolk person and my heritage is here; I'm nothing but that."