Their personal information will be matched in the database of the international law enforcement agencies as part of the United States continued war against terrorism and wanted fugitives.
CBP is the leading agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that will administer the application of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act to the CNMI under the mandates of U.S. Public Law 110-229 or the U.S. Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008.
Edward Low, chief CBP officer, said their job is to screen all incoming people to the Northern Marianas.
“Anybody who comes to the CNMI on or after the 28th, we will compare their personal information on our law enforcement database and whatever comes up, comes up,” he told the Variety.
Low said armed CBP officers will be stationed at the Saipan international airport. Their office will also have a passport reader and biometrics to compare if the passport holder and the person on it are actually one and the same.
CBP will take control of the local immigration on 12:01 a.m. of Nov. 28.
Low said the first arriving international flight that CBP will process is expected at 1 a.m. It was not immediately known which flight it is.
The local media was invited to observe the actual changes in the immigration process.
“CBP is working really hard to make this seamless as we can. We have no wish to impact the economy. We have no wish to hinder tourism. Our role is to protect border and to make sure that people coming to the CNMI don’t pose a threat to the CNMI or the U.S. mainland,” said Low.
