By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE acting chairman of the Democratic Party says the islands’ labor and immigration systems should have been federalized years ago, and describes the local business community’s doomsday scenario as nonsense.
Manuel C. Sablan said big business has already raked in millions of dollars in profits over the years.
“I think we should have worked with the feds 15 years ago on wage and immigration issues,” he said. “Our immigration is in chaos. They don’t even know how many people are here from the outside. Do you expect that to sit well with the feds?” Sablan told Variety.
He said local business leaders should not have called for the repeal of the 1993 law that mandated the gradual increase of the minimum wage rate until it reached the federal level.
“We would have been all right by now. But everybody complained they couldn’t handle it,” he said. “I think, excuse the (word), this is all b***s**t. I want the minimum wage to go up. Look at the garment industry. They can’t even increase its user fees by one penny. Why? Because you’ve got all these lobbyists. And these guys are making millions of dollars.”
The garment industry, which remains opposed to a wage hike that will apply to its workers, is exempt from paying the business gross revenue tax and only pays user fees that some lawmakers now want reduced despite the government’s worsening financial condition.