In 10 years, he added, the governor would be a Filipino. “I’m certain on that.”
According to the 2010 Department of Interior report, there are a total of 12,335 employed U.S. citizens and 13,768 Filipino workers.
The 2000 census pegged the foreign nationals at 35,985, 58% of the population and Pacific islanders, including Chamorros and Carolinians, at 18,781 or 30% of the population.
“It is not a question of us against them. It’s a question of all of us working together to create a better CNMI,” said Laguatan.
“The world belongs to all of us but not belong to only one people. Anybody has the right to have freedom and opportunity to find happiness,” he said.
Again, he appeased Filipino workers by saying: “Don’t be afraid. Just stay here.”
He said over the years there will be changes in CNMI.
After discussing immigration rules with the workers, Laguatan also pointed out that a couple of CNMI officials have apologized to him.
To recall, after Laguatan and U.S. immigration lawyer Loida Nicolas Lewis, both officials of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance, talked about the immigration concerns of nonresident workers, the governor issued a statement describing them as “jerks” that are looking for clients in CNMI.
“He apologized to me in behalf of the CNMI because of the statement of Gov. (Benigno) Fitial,” Laguatan said, referring to Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos.
In an arranged Immigration Forum at the Marianas Business Plaza lobby on Thursday night, Laguatan told Filipino workers he also met Senate President Paul Manglona, who also apologized to him.
Laguatan said he never gave weight to governor’s statement adding the governor might not know that Lewis is one of the richest Filipinos in U.S. and he is a known immigration lawyer.
“I’m rated one of the best immigration lawyers in U.S.,” he said.
Laguatan is one of 29 continuously certified experts by California State Bar.
In a meeting with Inos, Laguata said he believed that there are human rights cases here because some foreign workers in CNMI have not been treated as human beings.
He said the lt. governor is fully supportive with what he was doing.
Laguatan said he understood Fitial because politicians think differently.
But he said it’s wrong for the governor to say that all nonresident workers should leave CNMI.
If the parents are deported, he wondered, what would happen to their children who are U.S. citizens?
The senate president, he added, is also very supportive of improving the status of long term foreign workers in CNMI.
“We have more supportive people who understand the situation,” he said, as he also counted Sen. Ralph Torres, whom he also met on Thursday.
