By Pedro A. Tenorio
For Variety

I HAVE read and heard the governor’s statement to the press and would like to offer a statement of my own in light of some of the claims he has made. First, I too have enormous respect for the governor. He must make extremely difficult decisions during tough economic times, a challenge for any chief executive. I respect his opinions and recognize that we indeed have different leadership styles; however I must address several misgivings the governor has commented on regarding me and my position on immigration normalization. This is not about the governor and myself, nor is it between us. This is about the future of our commonwealth and our relationship with the federal government.
The governor continues to insist that the bills before both houses of Congress are “imposed on a single community of U.S. citizens.” While it is true that the bill is aimed specifically at normalizing immigration policies in the CNMI, it is being done so to cause the least disruption possible. If he would prefer that the Immigration and Naturalization Act be applied without any concessions to our local circumstances and without transition, I am sure that it can be arranged with both the U.S. House and Senate. The only reason why I think the governor would prefer this is if he is truly planning to sue the federal government, when the bill becomes law, for some breach of constitutional law that I fear does not exist.
The bill was not written to be an imposition of the federal government on the CNMI; it was written to allow the federal government border control. The members of the U.S. Congress are fully cognizant of their responsibilities under the Covenant, and are trying to make federal immigration policy work in the CNMI while allowing us to recover from our economic difficulties.
The governor states that the “[Covenant] does not authorize Congress to preempt all local labor laws and to allow a federal bureaucracy of five departments to make the critical decisions regarding our economic development, our workforce, and our community’s standard of living.” We should not allow the governor to continue to confuse this important issue. There is no separating border control and immigration policy from law, rules and regulations that govern the hiring and employing of non-U.S. citizens. Additionally, with the application of federal minimum wage, the CNMI is now fully under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Our economic development, our workforce, and our community’s standard of living have deteriorated precisely because of our immigration policies. Our people are leaving the CNMI at alarming rates because we have created a reliance on non-resident workers! I have met literally hundreds of our constituents throughout the CNMI, Guam, Hawaii and the mainland U.S. who echo the same concerns. Our people are suffering because they cannot find jobs that will make ends meet, they cannot find jobs because there are no educational opportunities within the CNMI to get the jobs, they cannot find jobs because there is an abundance of cheap labor from Asia. I can no longer stand by as we outsource our own home to foreigners! We need to have policies that stop the out-migration of our own people.
The governor insists that he has “lived too long to trust any federal government officials with the unqualified powers given them under this legislation.” Unfortunately, that is exactly the way many federal officials over the last two or three decades have felt about how we have administered our own immigration policies. The days we could hire lobbyists to prevent takeover are long gone. There are now many restrictive rules on how lobbyists can operate and how effective they can be. In addition the days we could prove how responsible we were in administering an adequate and protective guest worker program are in the past. Our day of reckoning is here, and the sooner we embrace this, the better we can make these bills.
The governor states that according to Dave Cohen “the Department of Homeland Security is not happy with the current legislation — it wants MORE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY over any visa waiver program of the kind essential to the future viability of our visitor industry.” Yes, DHS wants to approve the countries that are included in our visa waiver program. For this reason I have been doing all I can to convince them that through the procedures established under our approved destination status from China, and the ongoing bilateral talks between the U.S. and China that granting us China in a visa waiver program will be good for the U.S. Unfortunately, their concerns have been compounded by our attorney general’s refusal to work with the federal government on asylum issues. Rather, the AG has developed a closer relationship to the Chinese government on these issues. We should be very thankful that Dave Cohen is still our advocate. I have seen him in meetings defending our need to have the concessions these bills provide us, but the governor’s comments on Cohen have been consistently disingenuous.
On the matter of the visa waiver program outlined in the bill, let’s stop misrepresenting what it grants us. The bill grandfathers in all of the countries that we currently receive tourists from, including China and Russia. The bill grants them a 30-day visit, whereas the Guam visa waiver program allows visitors to stay only 15 days. The bill calls for DHS to develop regulations for long-term visits for students and retirees; Guam has nothing of the kind. If this section of the bill were defective, then why is my friend Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo receiving heat from her constituents over it?
It disheartens and angers me to hear that the governor characterizes my position on federalization as surrender. I’m not “giving up”; in fact, I am fighting for fair treatment in this bill for our people. The Fitial administration has made my job more difficult. Its attitude, arrogance, gross misrepresentation of the bill, and its unfortunate treatment of those who are trying to help us in Washington are threatening the goodwill and dedication that the members of the U.S. Senate Energy and House Natural Resources Committees have toward the CNMI.
I have no delusions about what local self-government is. It does not give us sovereign powers over border control or foreign affairs, but it does give us authority over those areas that make or break the standard of living of our people. We have control over the electrical utility, the public water supply, wastewater disposal, solid waste disposal, schools, health care, roads, public safety, and taxation. We have millions in unspent CIP funds, and yet little is being done to address the overwhelming poor state of our infrastructure.
Why would investors come to a place where no one can afford the power, drink the water, flush the toilets — do I need to go on? When did we get the idea that it was good to be able to tell investors, “We have control over our own immigration and you can bring in as many cheap Asian workers as you want.” We were supposed to use guest workers to supplement our local workforce, not push them out of the way. Perpetuating our reliance on a non-local workforce is a disservice to all of us, our children, and the future of the CNMI.
To the governor, I say, I am not your problem and the federal government is not your problem. The problem is the status quo. So therefore, I say to you, “Ben, join me in refining this legislation and let us stop wasting time and money on a failed program. Help our people survive and prosper once again.”