By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

I WAS told that Congressman George Miller will not be re-introducing his federal immigration measure, and will instead allow his fellow Democrats in the U.S. Senate to resurrect the original “takeover” bill that Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay zapped almost seven years ago when it reached the U.S. House of Representatives.
But before some of you out there uncork the champagne and jump up and down like certain simian species, let me remind you that this is still an unconfirmed report — although it does make a lot of sense. The Senate committee with oversight jurisdiction over the insular areas has scheduled a Feb. 8 public hearing on CNMI immigration, and one of the questions it earlier submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior mentioned S. 1052, or the Northern Mariana Islands Covenant Implementation Act.
Introduced in May 1999 by the then-chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Frank H. Murkowski, R-Ak., the bill would have imposed federal immigration law on the CNMI. It was a bipartisan measure. Its co-sponsors were Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hi. and now the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee; Tom Harkin, D-Ia., now chairman of Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who now chairs Energy and Natural Resources.
Murkowski and Akaka visited the CNMI in early 1996 and they were not exactly thrilled by what they saw. Harkin, for his part, was here in Aug. 1999 for a 12-hour visit. The following month, Energy and Natural Resources conducted a hearing on the Murkowski bill. CNMI government and business leaders, the garment industry foremost among them, testified against it. On Feb. 7, 2000, the Republican Senate, “after a few hours of one-sided debate,” passed S. 1052 by unanimous consent. Abramoff’s “charm,” had no effect on the GOP senators, particularly on Murkowski, who said that “The last time we heard a justification that economic advances would be jeopardized if workers were treated properly was shortly before Appomattox.” Akaka, speaking as “a friend and neighbor,” noted that “concern about the CNMI’s longstanding immigration problems has historically been bipartisan. The Reagan administration first sounded the alarm about the run-away immigration policies that the commonwealth adopted. The administration of every president in the past 16 years — Reagan, Bush and Clinton…— has criticized the commonwealth’s immigration policy.”
In contrast to Miller’s bill, which would have allowed qualified alien workers to apply for permanent residency status (please take note of the words “qualified” and “apply”), Murkowski’s had a one-time grandfather provision for qualified alien workers. They may be granted an immigrant visa or permanent residency PROVIDED that
“(A) the alien is employed directly by an employer in a business that the Attorney General has determined is legitimate;
“(B) the employer has filed a petition for classification of the alien as an employment-based immigrant with the Attorney General pursuant to section 204 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, not later than 180 days following the transition program effective date;
“(C) the alien has been lawfully present in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and authorized to be employed in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for the four-year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition;
“(D) the alien has been employed continuously in that business by the petitioning employer for the four-year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition;
“(E) the alien continues to be employed in that business by the petitioning employer at the time the immigrant visa is granted or the alien’s status is adjusted to permanent resident;
“(F) the petitioner’s business has a reasonable expectation of generating sufficient revenue to continue to employ the alien in that business for the succeeding four years; and
“(G) the alien is otherwise eligible for admission to the United States under the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1101, et seq.).”
That’s a lot of conditions. There would have been no mass distribution of green cards. The bill wasn’t a magic wand that would have turned alien workers into instant U.S. citizens.
S. 1052, moreover, proposed a 10-year PHASE-IN of federal immigration law to “minimize, to the greatest extent possible, potential adverse effects…on the economy of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” The measure also authorized a “technical assistance program for training and recruitment and to promote CNMI economic diversification.”
And this was the bill that CNMI political bigwigs and big business leaders considered Apocalypse Now.
Incidentally, the “No Federalization Without Consideration” group is asking why Section 902 of the Covenant has not been invoked in this issue. It was, and the federal and CNMI panels did meet here in Jan. 1999. President Clinton’s 902 representative Edward B. Cohen wanted to discuss labor and immigration, but the commonwealth team led by Lt. Gov. Pepero Sablan was more interested in talking about the CNMI’s need for more federal handouts.

Send feedback to zdtion@lycos.com