Northern Mariana Islands: Local government opposes federalization of immigration system

The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands is a dependent territory of the United States, which means it is bound by U.S. federal law and legislation.  However, since it became a Commonwealth of the United States in 1970, CNMI has handled its own immigration.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs David Cohen is pushing for immigration in CNMI to be "federalized as soon as possible" because of an ineffective pre-screening process for aliens entering the country, an "uncooperative stance" on refugee protection, and a human trafficking problem.  He was careful to add that S.1634 would not set a precedent relevant to national immigration reform.

Impunity Watch has reported on the drafts of Senate Bill 1634 and reactions here.  In that article, we reported that the bill would grant documented foreign workers with at least five years in the CNMI the same immigration privileges as those enjoyed by citizens of the Freely Associated States (Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia), which would deprive the government of labour and immigration fees.  There are concerns that the Department of Homeland Security's grant of lawful non-immigrant status to "all eligible workers and their spouses and children" would harm the indigenous population, and there are also concerns regarding the discrepancies between the CNMI bill and the national (United States) immigration bill.

CNMI governor Benigno Fitial said today, regarding the proposed change in legal status of alien workers, "The bill's drafters chose to ignore that such an enhanced status was not permitted or contemplated when these workers elected voluntarily to come to the CNMI many years ago to enjoy the economic opportunities available in CNMI."  He continued, "The Senate debate on immigration suggests that such a provision would never have been supported on a national level -- either because it looks like an amnesty provision or because it imposes an enormous burden on the commonwealth of permanent resident aliens numbering about twenty-five percent of the local U.S. citizen population."

During the public hearing conducted today, Cohen was extremely critical of CNMI's processes and its concerns about the effect the bill would have on its own population.  He said that those concerns "must not be used as an excuse to delay" the federalization of its immigration system.  The CNMI attorney general recently refused to turn over information regarding some of its refugees to the U.S., which Cohen views as an inability to distinguish between an inappropriate influence on a refugee hearing and attempts by federal agencies to monitor those hearings.  Cohen also said that, "In a post-9/11 environment, and given the CNMI's location and the number of aliens that travel there, we believe that continued local control of the CNMI's immigration system presents significant national security and homeland security concerns."  He cited statistics that human trafficking in CNMI is 8.8 to 10.6 times more prevalent than in the rest of the United States, and said that the calculation is conservative and "makes the CNMI look better than it actually is."

Governor Fitial opposes the bill on economic grounds, stating that it would cripple current attempts to bolster CNMI's struggling economy and that it would prevent such attempts in the future.  The bill requires five different U.S. departments to impliment it, forcing potential investors to deal with the U.S. bureaucracy, even if they only want to appraise prospects in CNMI.  Fitial emphasized the improvements his administration has made in the past year, including solving three thousand labour disputes.  He told the Saipan Tribune, "In CNMI, one can no longer break the rules or ignore the rules.  We have done a lot of belt-tightening.  So give us time.  This bill is spooking investors and they will run to another location."

The governor was also dismayed that the summary description of CNMI distributed to committee members was substantially comprised of information that was more than five years out of date.  "The drafters of S.1634 seemingly have no concern about the impact of this provision on the integrity and vitality of the indigenous Carolinian and Chamorro peoples in the Commonwealth."

In CNMI, alien workers have begun boycotting businesses owned by those who oppose the U.S. Senate bill, in particular those owned by the family of Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Juan Guerrero.  Guerrero is with Fitial in Washington to testify against S.1634.  Guerrero told Marianas Variety via e-mail, "I don't even want to discuss specifics of what I believe is best, because before that even matters, we need to convince the federal government that they have an obligation to everyone in the CNMI to conduct a serious factual study and then to work with us to craft an agreeable real-world solution that addresses everyone's concerns.  If the federal government is simply going to impose their will on us, then what I personally believe doesn't really matter."

Please see also:
"Cohen: NMI immigration must be federalized"  Marianas Variety  (20 July 2007)
"Alien workers to boycott anti-federalization businesses"  Marianas Variety  (20 July 2007)
"S.1634 will damage the NMI economy"  Saipan Tribune  (20 July 2007)

PDF of S.1634 Government Printing Office  (accessed 19 July 2007)