At the same time, Sablan said the majority of the estimated over 30 displaced local immigration personnel were absorbed by the U.S. Passport Office, the Division of Customs, the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s Office.
A few are still looking for jobs while others want to avail of early retirement, the former immigration director said.
He said local immigration personnel chose to hang on to their posts until the day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took over CNMI immigration.
“They could have easily picked up and left a couple of weeks, or a month, before the feds came, but then we would have faced [problems at the airport]. But they were loyal to their jobs and their careers. I think it is incumbent upon the Legislature and the administration to help them,” Sablan said.
He thanked the administration for helping the displaced immigration personnel find jobs despite the economic crisis.
“I think we owe them the opportunity to continue their employment at various government agencies that could use their expertise,” he added.
The governor unsuccessfully sued the U.S. government to prevent the implementation of the federalization law.
“It has happened already,” Sablan said, referring to federalization. “It’s a fact. The question now is where do we proceed from here? I mentioned in my inaugural speech that I hope we can build more cooperation between our government and the federal government.”
During the 1990s, the CNMI government successfully blocked federalization legislation in the Republican Congress by hiring the now disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff who is currently serving time in prison for fraud.
Sablan said when the Democratic Party regained control of the U.S. Congress in 2007, the CNMI should have known that federalizing the islands’ immigration system was on top of its agenda.
“The CNMI became a subject of bad press to the point where I personally felt that we were treated as a foreign government entity and not part of the United States. We were portrayed in the U.S. media as if we were foreigners and not U.S. citizens,” the lawmaker said.
“I think the media attack was something that you would expect a foreign dictatorship would get. But we fly the U.S. flag here and I carry a U.S. passport,” he added.
