The resolution also requests the Guam congresswoman to hold hearings in the CNMI on Interior’s report.
Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan, said Interior’s report should not be allowed to determine the future of the CNMI and its people.
The report, his resolution stated, “erroneously determines the CNMI’s future need for alien workers” by surveying 10 businesses on Saipan or less than 1 percent of the total businesses in the commonwealth.
Deleon Guerrero said Interior’s report also “fails to discuss the negative consequences” of the department’s recommendation to the CNMI’s social programs like the Nutritional Assistance Program, housing benefits, employment of U.S. citizens and healthcare costs.
It is important for the involved U.S. lawmakers to set foot on the islands so they themselves could hear what the CNMI indigenous people have to say about the issue, Deleon Guerrero said.
The resolution also asks CNMI Congressman Gregorio C. Sablan to advise the U.S. Congress not to entertain Interior’s report.
“The issue is not between the locals and the guest workers. It’s between the CNMI and the federal government,” Deleon Guerrero said.
Sablan, in an open letter to the people of the CNMI, assured them that they are now represented in the U.S. Congress.
“When federal immigration law was extended to the Northern Marianas in 2008, no one represented us in Congress. As a result, the law has major flaws. But now we are represented here. And there is an unwritten understanding that if a law is going to affect just one congressional district, then the congressman from that district should first agree,” he said.
“I am listening to you. I will not agree to any change in immigration law that affects only the Northern Marianas, until I have consulted fully with my constituents, and unless I am convinced the proposed change is in our best interest.”
He described Interior’s recommendation as “just a recommendation” requiring U.S. congressional approval.
