By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE administration says it has yet to receive any formal communication from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs that the controversial provision on nonimmigrant status for migrant workers has been deleted and even if it has will not take it as a victory for the CNMI, according to Press Secretary Charles Reyes Jr.
“We’re still waiting for an official communication (from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs),” said Reyes.
“And even if that’s the case (nonimmigrant status for long time migrants deleted), there’s no assurance that it won’t be re-inserted. I think our position is to wait until the facts are all in,” he added.
The House version of the federalization bill, H.R. 3079 titled the Northern Mariana Islands Immigration, Security and Labor Act, was offered by Rep. Donna Christensen, D-U.S. Virgin Islands.
Christensen, chairwoman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, led the congressional field hearing on Saipan on her bill in August which was also attended by Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo and American Samoa Congressman Eni Faleomavaega.
Faleomavaega openly expressed his opposition to the measure fearing its possible impact on their island as happened when the Democrats passed legislation increasing the national minimum wage with the Northern Marianas and American Samoa included in a rider.
On Sept. 20, Faleomavaega wrote U.S House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall expressing serious reservations about H.R. 3079 and its counterpart at the U.S. Senate, S. 1634 titled the Northern Mariana Islands Covenant Implementation Act.
“Although it may not be anyone’s intent to include American Samoa in the immigration debate surrounding CNMI, the fact is no one can promise that American Samoa will not be pulled into it and included in any measures that may go forward. For this reason, I cannot support H.R. 3079 or S. 1634 at this time,” part of his letter reads.
During the field hearing on Saipan, Faleomavaega, also raised questions on the nature of the CNMI’s Covenant Agreement with the United States.
He asked if the Covenant agreement was considered a treaty or not.
A treaty by definition is an agreement between two or more nations and must be approved by two-thirds of senators present under Article II, Section of the U.S. Constitution to become effective.
Howard Willens, the governor’s special advisor who was the NMI’s legal counsel who negotiated the Covenant Agreement, said the islands’ agreement with the U.S. is “like a treaty” but not exactly one since it was approved by both houses of the U.S. Congress.
H.R. 3079 also seeks to federalize the Northern Marianas’ borders and immigration system but unlike its Senate counterpart, it has a provision granting the islands a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. Congress.