Islands will get to vote a delegate to US Congress

Haidee Eugenio
The United States will take control of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands' (CNMI) immigration as early as June 2009, which will be a year after President George Bush’s May 8, 2008 signing of a measure that finally brings the CNMI under the federal immigration system applied anywhere in the United States.

S.2739 or the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 is now Public Law 110-229.

Besides taking over local immigration, the new law also grants CNMI its first delegate seat to the US House of Representatives, which has long been afforded to all other US territories—Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

And despite being a member of the US family, the CNMI—a 14-island chain in the Western Pacific—controls its own immigration. All other US insular areas are covered by federal immigration law.

With the help of Congressional Republicans and powerful lobbyists like the now imprisoned Jack Abramoff, CNMI was able to stave off—for many years—legislation proposed to tighten security and improve working conditions in the commonwealth.

CNMI, a popular tourist destination, paid at least US$6.7 million to Abramoff and his law firm between 1995 and 2001.

CNMI Governor Benigno R. Fitial insists the federal takeover law is “far more damaging” to the local economy than the proposals originally considered by the US Senate and House.

He called the signing of the measure “the end of an era for the people and the government.”

In his May 2 State of the Commonwealth Address, Fitial said he may challenge the federal law in court, citing advice that the measure is not authorized by the Covenant between the Northern Marianas and the US government.

The governor said local immigration and labor controls helped transform the CNMI economy in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and raised the standard of living for both local and foreign workers.

“I had hoped to continue using these economic tools to orchestrate an economic recovery for the CNMI, and I deeply regret the recently passed legislation may impede our local government’s ability to orchestrate an economic recovery based on sound economic incentives and competitive free market policies,” said the governor in a statement.

Pete A. Tenorio, the CNMI resident representative to Washington, D.C., however, called on local leaders to forget any plan to derail the federal government’s takeover of CNMI immigration.

CNMI’s first delegate to US House of Reps

Supporters of the measure, including key US lawmakers and human rights advocates, say the new law tightens border control and provides meaningful reforms that will end exploitation of workers and reduce sex and human trafficking in the CNMI.

The immigration law has a provision allowing CNMI voters to elect their first ever delegate to the US Congress on Nov. 4, which will coincide with the national presidential elections. Names of possible candidates have started to circulate, including CNMI’s current resident representative to Washington, D.C., Tenorio.

For decades, CNMI only has a resident representative to Washington, D.C., unlike the rest of the US territories in the Pacific which has a delegate each to the US House of Representatives.

The non-voting delegates in the US Congress receive the same pay levels given to US senators and members of the House, which is $169,300 per year.

“With the signing of this bill into law, every United States citizen, from the Virgin Islands to the Mariana Islands, will have a voice in Congress.

The actions taken by the new Democratic Congress to pass this legislation serve to set the CNMI and the entire Marianas region on a new course of security and prosperity,” Virgin Islands Delegate and Subcommittee on Insular Affairs Chairwoman Donna M. Christensen, a Democrat, said.

Christensen said the signing of the measure is “a historic victory for the many people of the CNMI who have been frustrated by the lack of representation in the US Congress and the poor management of local immigration policy”.

The Bush administration also cited national security concerns as reasons for supporting the measure because the CNMI is only about 40 minutes away by plane from Guam, also a US territory with a US military base and where the biggest Marine facility since World War II will soon be built.

The military buildup, which involves the relocation to Guam of over 10,000 Marines, as well as thousands of their dependents, will also need additional foreign workers for infrastructure and services.

Under the Public Law 110-229, employers in the CNMI may be allowed to petition their foreign workers for H visas, or acquire temporary CNMI-only work permits to augment anticipated labor shortage in both CNMI and Guam in light of the military buildup. A Guam/CNMI visa waiver program will also be introduced for tourism and business purposes.

Foreign investors doing business in the CNMI will be considered “non-immigrant treaty traders” and will be allowed to stay on the islands subject to certain conditions.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, is required to reclassify foreign investors during the “post-transition period.”

The CNMI immigration bill was introduced by US Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) on March 10, 2008 and was passed the US Senate on April 10 by a vote of 91-4. On April 29, the US House of Representatives passed it on a vote of 291-117, and was cleared for the White House that same day. President Bush signed it on May 8.

Under the new law, the US Secretary of Homeland Security must work with the State Secretary, the Attorney-General, the Labor Secretary, and the Interior Secretary to establish the transition program, which will be in effect from June 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2014.

Between now and June next year, local labor and immigration laws will still apply to the CNMI.

The CNMI Department of Labor immediately issued emergency regulations that cap the number of alien workers in the CNMI at 22,417. This means the CNMI government will not allow an increase in the total number of alien workers who are present in the CNMI, effective immediately.

Foreign workers press for ‘green cards’

For many of the estimated 19,000 documented foreign workers in CNMI, a federal takeover of local immigration will mean a better immigration status for them.

The Human Dignity Movement and the Coalition of United Guest Workers (CNMI) are circulating a signature drive petitioning the US Congress to grant “green cards” to long-term guest workers in CNMI. Over 6000 foreign workers have so far signed the petition.

A “green card” affords non-US citizens some of the rights US citizens enjoy, sometimes with the prospect of naturalization.

Members of the foreign worker community, mostly from the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Korea, Thailand and other Asian countries, have been holding general meetings and peaceful vigils to hail the federalization bill’s signing into law and drum up support for the granting of green cards.