By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

ALMOST all of the members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce remain opposed to federalizing the CNMI immigration system but a significant number of them favor granting long-time guest workers the opportunity to improve their immigration status as proposed in the two pending federalization bills in the U.S. Congress — S. 1634 in U.S Senate and H.R. 3079 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At their general membership meeting yesterday at the Saipan Grand Hotel, a majority of chamber members voted “yes” on the proposition: “Federalized homeland security and coast guard are fine; CNMI will handle immigration.”
Seventy-seven members, however, voted “yes” on the question of whether foreign workers should be grandfathered into (the proposed nonimmigrant) residency status while 41 voted “no.”
Ron Hodges, who is into real estate and is a teacher at Marianas High School, said the votes only validated his belief that there are a lot of silent supporters in the local business community for the improvement of immigration status for foreign workers.
“This is democracy in action,” said Hodges, adding that there could have been a snowballing of support had the votes been not done by secret ballot.
He said there is no question that foreign workers, who drive the islands’ garment and tourism-based economy, should be given equal and fair treatment by their host country, the United States.
Although the commonwealth controls its immigration system, the federal government has the authority to modify this through an act of Congress.
Alex Sablan, vice president of the chamber, insisted that the CNMI should keep control over its immigration system.
He said the proposal to grant foreign workers immigration status similar to what citizens of Freely Associated States enjoy is like a “slap in the face” to the negotiators of the FAS nations — Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Marshall Islands — “who fought hard to give their citizens such a privilege.”
“This is an insult to those who negotiated for that,” he said.
The two other propositions put before the chamber members were: “The CNMI should ask for additional impact monies, especially if foreign workers are granted FAS or other status” and “The CNMI will have exit requirements, the same process as U.S. as well as the ability to get employer-sponsored green cards.” A majority voted yes on each.
Former Sen. Juan T. Guerrero, chamber president, said the results of their votes show that their board acted in the best interests of their members on the federalization issue.
“The tally basically confirms the action of the board. It confirms that the board acted in the best interests of the members. All the numbers are above the majority,” said Guerrero.
“No, it’s not unanimous. However, we expect that in any organization, even the Legislature,” he added.
Guerrero earlier testified against federalization before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.