By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE bill to federalize the local immigration system will be introduced in the U.S. Senate in March or April and will reflect the concerns raised by the CNMI government and private sector, according to visiting Senate staffer Allen Stayman.
“For an initial bill to be introduced, I’m thinking of a very near term, a matter of a few weeks, but that only begins the process,” Stayman said during a press conference yesterday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
The former Office of Insular Affairs director added: “We’re talking of weeks, not months. The objective is to establish federal border control in a way that meets the special needs of the CNMI. We’re here to hear what those special needs are. We ask people to add to our list of things to consider.”
He said the U.S. Senate bill authored by then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, will provide the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources an outline in drafting a new measure.
Murkowski’s bill, S. 1052, was co-sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. and now the chairman of the committee. The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate but was never considered by the U.S. House of Representatives whose majority whip was then Tom DeLay, R-Tx.
Stayman and fellow U.S. Senate staffer Josh Johnson, along with OIA congressional liaison Stephen Sander, came up with a list of additional things to consider in drafting the new immigration legislation after meeting with leaders of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marianas Visitors Authority and the Dekada group yesterday and Sunday.
These concerns are: the need for a guest worker program; continuing the CNMI’s access to certain tourists, including those from China or Russia; the status of long-term foreign workers in the islands; the establishment of standards for legitimate foreign investors to remain here; and improvements in the labor system to prevent worker exploitation and abuse.
Stayman and Johnson are leaving this afternoon, while Sander will stay for a few more days. Sander’s inclusion, according to OIA, shows the Bush administration’s willingness “to work with Congress” on CNMI issues.
“I will be involved in writing (the bill) with these two gentlemen,” said Stayman. “The three of us want to do this as a group effort, along with the people here in the Marianas. This is a partnership.”
The administration of federal immigration, in Stayman’s personal view, should be run out of the CNMI or somewhere near like Guam, which is under federal immigration jurisdiction.
Stayman noted that the economic downturn — and not the federalization of CNMI immigration — will affect the number of nonresident workers which is now about 27,000.
He said CNMI revenues have shrunk by 20 percent and are likely to shrink by at least another 20 percent “so a lot of workers are going to have to leave as a result of that.”
He said even if the measure becomes law in a year, it may take years before its provisions will come into effect and, by that time, there may be significant changes in the economy and in the number of guest workers.
Stayman at the same time said “now is not a good time to be asking for (federal) money.”
“The U.S. is at war and running large deficits — on the other hand, the CNMI is in an awkward economic downturn and there’s a need for resources.”
The cost of federalizing CNMI immigration, he added, may be about the same as on Guam.
He said it will be “very simple” for the federal government to extend its immigration program to the CNMI.
Today, Stayman will be meeting with Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, members of the cabinet and the Legislature, as well as officials of the Department of Labor and Division of Immigration.